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Formatting dialogue for Kindle

edited April 2013 in - Writing Problems
I'm sure this has been discussed on TB but for the life of me I can't find anything. I struggle to make dialogue look 'right' anyway but cannot see how it should be formatted for an e-book.

Any hints?

I'm trying to get myself back into a writing rythym and this issue is really getting me down.

Thanks in advance :)

Comments

  • Do you mean would it have double speech marks or single, or a dash, or an indented dash, etc.?

    I can't help, sorry, but is this the problem?
  • UK convention is for single quotes; US convention is double. So take your pick and remember to be consistent.
    A new speaker always goes in a new paragraph. This means that if you opt for a paragraph style using no first line indents but an extra space between paras, dialogue will always look too spaced out, especially when it's single line speeches. So it's best to indent first lines and don't have any extra spacing. (And always set up your para style using the para style menu - don't use tabs.
  • Double quotes looks better on screen. The dialogue stand out more. There's an article that mentions this in the current edition of Writing Magazine. I like the way double quotes look on an eReader. Remember too, if you make your book available world wide, you may not want it biased towards UK formatting conventions.
  • Take a look at some ebooks and copy whichever version you think looks best. If you don't already have an ereader or any ebooks you can use the 'look inside' feature on Amazon.
  • It's more about layout-I'm fine with how it should look just not sure how to get the speech on separate lines-if that makes sense-without a gap
    'Hi Janet I like your coat' said Bob
    'Thanks Bob' said Janet
    'Is it new?'
    'No I've had it ages'
    etc

    Trouble is when I type it like this and upload to Kindle it's all over the shop.I managed to get the rest of the format looking ok but if I use the return key Kindle thinks it's a paragraph break-does make any sense?

    Wondered if anyone had managed to overcome this-it's probably really obvious and I'm just missing it somehow.

    Thanks for responding all :)
  • In Word, the home toolbar has the 'paragraph' section, and when that window is opened, theres a check box halfway down saying: don't add space between paragraphs of the same style. Check the box to keep things as close as your examples above.

    Or did you know about that?
  • [quote=red-lucy]'Hi Janet I like your coat' said Bob
    'Thanks Bob' said Janet
    'Is it new?'
    'No I've had it ages'[/quote]
    'Take it off.'
    Janet blushed. 'Why, Bob, I can't do that! I'm not wearing anything underneath.'
    'That's why I want you to take it off.'
  • How can I meet this Bob?
  • [quote=pbw]Janet blushed. 'Why, Bob, I can't do that! I'm not wearing anything underneath.'[/quote]
    Blimey I laughed out loud-haven't done that in ages-thank you PBW and Baggy Books made my day :)
  • [quote=Dwight]don't add space between paragraphs of the same style[/quote]

    It's greyed out-I think I might have to look at this on a new piece rather than a old piece-but thanks anyway :D
  • [quote=pbw]Janet blushed. 'Why, Bob, I can't do that! I'm not wearing anything underneath.'[/quote] Spoken with an Amerian southern-belle accent, I had meant to say and forgot to add it. :)
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