The document provides 8 rules for writing dialogue in short stories. It explains how to properly use quotation marks, punctuation, and attribution when writing dialogue. It emphasizes varying dialogue tags beyond just "said" and including dialogue to make stories more interesting. It also provides a long list of alternative dialogue words and recommends additional resources on writing dialogue.
3. Rule #2
Exactly what the speaker says will
have quotation marks around it.
“This is an example.”
4. Rule # 3 Punctuation goes INSIDE
the quotation Marks!
“I absolutely love pepperoni
pizza!” exclaimed Matty.
5. Rule # 4 If the annotation is first,
you place the comma after it:
Jacob said, “I wish I could go.”
6. Rule # 5 If the annotation is last, you
put the comma inside the quotation
marks, and then put a period at the
end. If it is a question or exclamation,
the ? and ! go inside the quotation
marks:
“I wish I could go,” Jacob said.
“I wish I could go!” Jacob
exclaimed
7. Rule # 6 You do not have to tell
who the speaker is each time if the
dialogue is between two people
and they are having a lot of back-and-
forth conversations. Your
readers will understand.
8. Rule # 7 Use a VARIETY of
explanatory words such as “stated,
questioned, observed, screamed,
and agreed” instead of always using
“said.”
9. Rule # 8 Whenever possible, always
include dialogue in your short story.
It makes it a LOT more interesting!
12. Other great resources:
http://fictionwriting.about.com/od/writingexercises/qt/punctuation.htm
http://www.writingfix.com/PDFs/Writing_Tools/Rules_of_dialogue.pdf
http://writingfix.com/PDFs/Writing_Tools/Tom_Swiftie_Dialogue_rules.pdf
http://ywp.nanowrimo.org/files/ywp/ywp_10_hs_dialogue.pdf
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