This has been killing me lately. Let's say you have one character delivering a ton of dialogue. But they take a little breather, during which there is no exposition. How do you come back in with the continued dialogue? Here's an example. This is the way I think it's supposed to be done, but I'm not sure. Specifically, I'm talking about the quotation marks. I will double space it to make it easier to read. Pretend the gibberish is dialogue. "Baoshpowehgiorp3qhigpoq3rhgpoqrhgoprqhgorihgopqrhgor3ihgor3[hgo[qr3 hg[ghi[rgh[oqghrgf qwegfnowpgin iorp;gn 3rihrgh 3[g q3ghr[ghrq3[rhq[hru3[befjwio[[j." 'Adflnawopgiwqop;rgnirop;gnop;gnoqrp;ginp;bghnrog[hniop;3gorhg;padfnwpfandsnfa;opwdfni;pdawfda." Is that right? Start it out with ". End that paragraph with ". Come back in with ' and end it all with ". I think that's right but I'm not sure. Furthermore, what is the name for one quote mark. Like this: ' what is that called even? thank you!!
It's called a single quote. It's also called a mistake, where you put it. Your question is addressed in my blog article, He said, she said - Mechanics of Dialogue.
well I searched that blog article, and I don't see where it talks about a single quote, or where it talks about a long monologue style quote. Any help is much appreciated!
"Actually, I don't think I've ever seen it done like that. I'm kinda curious as where you got it from. Double quotation marks are generally used for dialogue in the US, whereas single quotation marks are used for titles of things, and the like. "But where you start a new paragraph, where the same speaker continues without any narration between, standard practice is to drop the quotation marks at the end of the first paragraph, to show that the paragraph break does not indicate an end to that piece of dialogue. Basically, what I've just done with this post. When the dialogue then gives way to exposition or another speaker speaking, you'd close the paragraph with closing double quotation marks, indicating that the dialogue is concluded. Like so."
Quotes I have never heard that. However, I have read that depending on your style some new authors even ignore quotes or break some rules because of their odd grammatical flavor. Usually kids stories, but I have no examples. Concerning your pause, I wouldn't over think it. Rather than find a new rule, maybe interlace narrative: e.g. "Massive monologue text," he paused--uncomfortably so, and continued, "continuation of the monologue." If you do this and an editor or writing expert at a convention etc, tells you that for your genre, field, story, or style, it should be a different way, then change it (when they show you why). Also I don't know foreign rules, I am from the US, so if you're not consider that as well.
The method outlined by Banzai's post is the correct way, and it's the only way I've ever seen it done.
not really, banz... in the us they're generally used only for a quote within a quote... the only other approved uses are when there's a quote in a headline, or to highlight words with special meaning in certain disciplines such as philosophy, theology, and linguistics.
That makes sense to me, because I always thought that when a person quotes something, it's a single quotation and not double. Another thing, I'm not sure that if a person talks, do we supposed to start another paragraph if the aurthor continues the narration, even if it's about the same character who just previously spoke? Here's an example in my dialogue: Kelly took her glasses off and frowned. “Jason, honey— Richard... …and aren’t you going to say hi to your mom?” She tried enfolding her skinny arms around me, but my anxiety rushed me to get him to speak. He stood like a robot, where his eyes paused, to see him as if he never saw me before. I'm not sure about this. Does anyone have the same issue with paragraphing narration on the same dialogue?
sorry, but i can't make any sense out of that... what're the em dash and those ellipses doing there?... are you trying to show she's addressing two different people at the same time?... if so, that's not the way to do it... you could either start a new paragraph, or keep it all together, when narrative is about the same character who's speaking... but there you have narrative about more than one character, so it's very confused/confusing... add to that the fact that you have two male characters mentioned, so we can't tell which one all those 'he/him's refer to... you really need to redo this and untangle it all, imo...
