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Writing Tips

Punctuating Dialogue

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➸ “This is a sentence.”

➸ “This is a sentence with a dialogue tag at the end,” she said.

➸ “This,” he said, “is a sentence split by a dialogue tag.”

➸ “This is a sentence,” she said. “This is a new sentence. New sentences are capitalized.”

➸ “This is a sentence followed by an action.” He stood. “They are separate sentences because he did not speak by standing.”

➸ She said, “Use a comma to introduce dialogue. The quote is capitalized when the dialogue tag is at the beginning.”

➸ “Use a comma when a dialogue tag follows a quote,” he said.

“Unless there is a question mark?” she asked.

“Or an exclamation point!” he answered. “The dialogue tag still remains uncapitalized because it’s not truly the end of the sentence.”

➸ “Periods and commas should be inside closing quotations.”

➸ “Hey!” she shouted, “Sometimes exclamation points are inside quotations.”

However, if it’s not dialogue exclamation points can also be “outside”!

➸ “Does this apply to question marks too?” he asked.

If it’s not dialogue, can question marks be “outside”? (Yes, they can.)

➸ “This applies to dashes too. Inside quotations dashes typically express—“

“Interruption” — but there are situations dashes may be outside.

➸ “You’ll notice that exclamation marks, question marks, and dashes do not have a comma after them. Ellipses don’t have a comma after them either…” she said.

➸ “My teacher said, ‘Use single quotation marks when quoting within dialogue.’”

➸ “Use paragraph breaks to indicate a new speaker,” he said.

“The readers will know it’s someone else speaking.”

➸ “If it’s the same speaker but different paragraph, keep the closing quotation off.

“This shows it’s the same character continuing to speak.”

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We wait, starving for moments of high magic to inspire us, but life is full of common enchantment waiting for our alchemists eyes to notice. -Jacob Nordby

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Well! It turns out that Blessed Are the Weird audiobook is available at no charge on Spotify if you have a premium account.

https://open.spotify.com/show/2vOC6NJ38Z6jtX64Zk3Kiv?si=OCFFGRweSm-Vr1GEuX47oQ

I had a wonderful time narrating this book about six years ago and am happy to offer it in a new way now from my heart.

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Why love what you will lose? There is nothing else to love.

Louise Gluck, From the Japanese

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Thank you @tinybuddhaofficial

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“In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.”

Albert Schweitzer

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When you walk into the coffee shop and the floor mat starts humming “Comfortably Numb” and you have to stop and question reality for a minute.

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Writers,

We’ve always loved this New Year spell by Neil Gaiman— it feels like the perfect way for us to say THANK YOU for an amazing year and affirm our commitment to support you in making your writing dreams come true.

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Happy New Year

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“You know how every once in a while you do something and the little voice inside says ‘There. That’s it. That’s why you’re here’ … and you get a warm glow in your heart because you know it’s true? Do more of that.”

— Jacob Nordby

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“It definitely broke our spirits,” said Brittany Harris, 17, a junior and the co-president of the club, when she heard that the board didn’t want to accept the grant that students had worked on for weeks.

LGBTQ teens won a grant for their school. Adults sent the money back.

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