New to the forum and I'm hoping I've got the right section here... Essentially I have a question to do with dialogue which I haven't been able to find an answer to online... So - in a situation with continuing dialogue: “Look like you've seen a ghost.” said Jay, “Shower’s still running if you want one.” How would I continue the character actions afterwards? As far as I'm aware, it's not the start of a new sentence. For example: “Look like you've seen a ghost.” said Jay, “Shower’s still running if you want one.” Nathan opened the door. Both sentences were spoken by Jay, I just want to see if there was a graceful way to move on to Nathan's next actions or if the way I've done so was the best possible way.
What you want to do is this: A comma at the end of the first bit of dialogue rather than a period, a period after the end of the tag (the 'said Jay' part), then a new line for the new person's action, same as you would with a new person's dialogue. You could keep Nathan's action alongside Jay's dialogue if Jay was going to keep talking - as long as it was clear via context or tag that it was Jay's dialogue - but otherwise you want to keep them apart.
