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Natural Forces by McAllerton


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Writewords Forums » Technique » Continuing dialogue
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  Continuing dialogue  RT104 at 15:17 on 22 July 2010
 

Could someone please remind me, because I can't find an example of it in a single book on my shelf... What's that thing you do if the same person is spaeking for more than a paragraph? I was thinking that you don't put a close speech mark at the end of the paragraph, but then you do open a new speech mark for the new pargarpah - but have I imagined that?

(I don't think I've ever done it before. It's fiddly, because it's in dialogue, but it's actually someone reading out a letter - hence its running to more than one paragraph. But I don't wnat to set out the letter verbatim in the text, I want it in dialogue because one character is reading it to another and they are commenting as she goes.)

Any help gratefully received!

Rosy x
  Re: Continuing dialogue  MF at 15:50 on 22 July 2010
 

I was thinking that you don't put a close speech mark at the end of the paragraph, but then you do open a new speech mark for the new pargarpah


Yup, that's the ticket!
  Re: Continuing dialogue  RT104 at 16:24 on 22 July 2010
 

Thanks, Trilby. I knew someone here would know.

R x
  Re: Continuing dialogue  chris2 at 18:02 on 22 July 2010
 

Agreed. You have to open for each new paragraph but close only the final one.

Chris
  Re: Continuing dialogue  Jem at 19:51 on 22 July 2010
 

Do you know, I haven't seen that done in a mag for ages. I would always think for my purposes that one person speaking for more than one para meant they should shut up. But that's mag stories for you!
  Re: Continuing dialogue  Katerina at 09:00 on 23 July 2010
 

Ooh I didn't know this. I would have just carried on the dialogue and put the closing speech mark at the end!

That's what I love about this site - we're learning something new all the time

Kat
  Re: Continuing dialogue  EmmaD at 09:30 on 23 July 2010
 

Yes, you do another opening one, to remind the reader that it's dialogue, I guess, but don't do a closing one till the end.

Having said that, for me if I'm wanting to start a new paragraph within a speech, it's an alarm-bell, as Jem says, that it's too much of a slab all in one. If it really was a story, and I didn't want to break it up into dialogue with the occasional action, interjection and so on, then I'd be tempted to do a double-line space, and set it as a separate narrative element, as it were. You see in in 19th century fiction all the time.

Emma
  Re: Continuing dialogue  Account Closed at 11:33 on 23 July 2010
 

Between paras you could always put in "Uh huh" I said, or He coughed before carrying on, or whatever!
  Re: Continuing dialogue  RT104 at 08:05 on 25 July 2010
 

No, absolutely - I wouldn't normally let a character bang on for nearly that long uninterrupted. But she's reading out this letter, with a mini-narrative in it, and the person she's reading it to has already interposed a couple of times and been told to shut up, and now I really need to let the letter flow - but it's still in dialogue 'cos she's reading it out. That's why I wasn't 100% sure of the punctuation convention - I don't think I've ever done it before - just seen it in older novels.

R x