I'm writing using Microsoft word with a novel manuscript template to properly format it and wondered if anyone knows how dialogue is supposed to be presented when formatting the text to submit to a publisher? I know they can be picky on how you format. Do I use speech marks or apostrophes? Do I start a new line of text after the dialogue? How to go about presenting a conversation between two characters? Thanks very much in advance!
I say pick up a book (and really this can be just about any book), look at a section of dialog and do exactly that. This isn't so hard. Usually, dialog is in quotes. Each person speaking gets a new line. Formatting for dialog hasn't really changed much. I'm sure you've read a million examples of dialog done right.