I can never remember the correct way to do this. If a second character performs an action while the first character is speaking, should that action be included in the same paragraph, or should it be its own separate paragraph? For example; a) “We should go for a walk,” James said, “the woods are beautiful at this time of year.” Alice dropped the spoon she was drying and bent down to pick it up. “It would do you good to get out of the house for a while,” James continued. Or; b) “We should go for a walk,” James said, “the woods are beautiful at this time of year.” Alice dropped the spoon she was drying and bent down to pick it up. “It would do you good to get out of the house for a while,” James continued. Which is correct? Any advice is appreciated.
I would say yes, it should be separate paragraphs as the action in the middle is carried out by a different character and is unrelated to the dialogue spoken by the first character (in other words, the dialogue didn't cause the action).
Yes, but not the way you've presented option B, and the first paragraph is incorrectly punctuated. “We should go for a walk,” James said. “The woods are beautiful at this time of year.” Alice dropped the spoon she was drying and bent down to pick it up. “It would do you good to get out of the house for a while,” James continued.
