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March 28, 2024, 07:13:50 pm

Author Topic: How to set out dialogue?  (Read 3502 times)

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dcesaona

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How to set out dialogue?
« on: August 03, 2018, 12:20:49 pm »
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Hey, for my creative writing piece, I have quite a bit of dialogue, but I'm unsure how to set it out. I know that for every dialogue you have to make a new line right?

For instance:
The cat jumped over the dog and they both screamed "come back!" But the cat said, "no" and the dog replied, "yes!"

How would something like that be set out? Sorry for that piece of brilliant creative writing above.  :)

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jamonwindeyer

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Re: How to set out dialogue?
« Reply #1 on: August 03, 2018, 06:44:11 pm »
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Hey, for my creative writing piece, I have quite a bit of dialogue, but I'm unsure how to set it out. I know that for every dialogue you have to make a new line right?

For instance:
The cat jumped over the dog and they both screamed "come back!" But the cat said, "no" and the dog replied, "yes!"

How would something like that be set out? Sorry for that piece of brilliant creative writing above.  :)



Hey! So...

The cat jumped over the dog.

"Come back!" they both screamed.

"No," the cat said.

"Yes," the dog said.

That would be how you'd do it, holding to convention - It's not the best to have dialogue sitting at the end of a sentence. Like,

"This is an impactful statement," the man said, mustering all his courage.

...is better than...

The man mustered all his courage and said, "This is an impactful statement."

Note: These aren't hard rules, but they are good stylistic choices to make to make sure the reader isn't confused!