Hi, everyone. I'm struggling with finding the answer to my dialog question. Which is the correct paragraph structure for action before dialog: 1. “What about James?” Esteban asked. Mateo smoothed his hand over his chin. “What about him?” or 2. “What about James?” Esteban asked. Mateo smoothed his hand over his chin. “What about him?” Thank you!
The first. The smoothing is a beat that leads into dialogue, which is the same as a tag. Also, does not smooth your hand over your chin. That implies it is the hand that is being smoothed. It's not, it's the chin. If you say "smoothed his chin", you can omit the hand, that is implied - what else would he be smoothing it with?