dialogue and text layout - HELP!!

Champion

Champion

Hi - am tidying up manuscript of short story (first attempt)
am confused as to layout of dialogue, is it so that each bit of speech counts as a complete sentance in itself and must therefore be on its own line?

Im just finding it weird taking my work to 'bits' and the new arrangements look odd! as if the whole thing is just a 'list' of little speeches by the characters.
Im worried that the meaning might be lost.
Yes, I do sound like a numpty!!...but any advice is more than welcomed many thanks :) x

dorothyd

Hi there, good morning, let's look at this for you.
Remember all new dialogue needs indenting by five spaces, so imagine this is indented, and let's go ...
"Good morning, Talkback friends!"
"Good morning, Dorothy. How are you today?"
"Not so good, fighting a migraine I got up with after a sleepless night. I have got myself hung up on the Earl's execution and cannot shift the images from my mind.  It's causing insomnia of the worst kind."
"Sorry to hear that.  Better do some meditating or visualisation to change the mindset."
"Of course. I needed reminding. Thanks for that! Sometimes we don't take our own advice, do we?"

OK? Each person speaking has a new line to themselves.  Now, if you have a lengthy piece of dialogue, you might want/need to split it into two paragraphs. If you do, you don't close the " " marks on the first one but you do start the next paragraph with them so the reader knows it is still speech and still the same person.

Does this help?

SilentTony

That is excellent advice by dorothy. Also a small tip would be to pick up a book or magazine short story and see how dialogue and text are formatted. This would be the best hands on way to visually see how it should look. Also remember to adhere to all formatting rules laid out in the competition or submissions guidelines.

elizabeth

Yes i have the same problem with my dialogue i only wish i was more intrested when i was still at school.:-P

Champion

Wow!! thanks so much Dorothy and Silent Tony and Elizabeth! I am so very grateful to you- particularly Dorothy. I will try this out. It's lovely to talk to some fellow writers and your advice is very welcome. thanks :)

Jay Mandal

Full stops/commas etc at the end of the dialogue will usually go inside the closing speech marks (if you've put a question mark or an exclamation mark, then no need for a comma, too). Decide whether you're using double or single speech marks - may depend on house style or whether UK/US. But as has been said, look at something which resembles your style of writing, and see how it's been done. Good luck!