<p> NAME: CORE:</p><p>Dialogue</p><p>“Dialogue reveals character and creates distinctive voice. How do authors do it? They use their ears to see how people talk, and they use contractions to sound real.” Jeff Anderson, Everyday Editing Try this: ● Dialogue moves a narrative along and/or reveals something about a character. ● We indent every time a new person speaks. ● The end punctuation goes inside quotation marks. ● Dialogue can help us show rather than tell. ● Said is not dead.</p><p>Not that: ● Retell dialogue exactly instead of giving your reader the good stuff ● Summarize dialogue all the time, instead of letting the characters say it ● Think that summarizing is wrong instead of sometimes using it to move the story along ● Using too many creative words to mean said </p><p>Some general dialogue “rules”: 1. Direct dialogue begins with a capital letter. “Take your feet off my chair and shut your trap.” 2. When a quotation is interrupted into two parts with words like “he said” or “she asked,” the second part begins with a lower-case letter. “Sure,” I said tiredly, “we’re young and innocent.” 3. When writing dialogue, all punctuation marks at the end of a quotation go inside the quotation marks. “Okay, greasers, you’ve had it” 4. Do not put a period at the end of a quotation followed by things like “he said,” etc. Use commas, question marks, and exclamation marks. Periods end sentences. “I kind of admire him,” Cherry said softly. 5. Make a new paragraph (indent) when a different person begins to speak. [Two-Bit] climbed over the chair and plopped down beside Marcia. “Who’s this, your great-aunts?” “Great-grandmothers, twice removed,” Cherry said smoothly. </p>