How to format dialogue
Where the comma goes before said, when to start a new paragraph, tags against action beats, interruptions and trailing off, thoughts, and speech that runs over several paragraphs.
4 min read · October 16, 2026 · All guides
Readers never notice dialogue that is punctuated correctly and notice at once when it is not, because the eye has to stop and work out who is speaking. The conventions below are the ones most English-language publishers use. The examples follow American practice (double quotation marks, punctuation inside the closing mark); British practice usually uses single marks and otherwise differs very little for dialogue. Pick one and keep to it for the whole book.
Punctuation inside the quotation marks
When a tag such as she said follows the speech, the speech ends with a comma inside the closing mark, and the tag stays lower case:
“I can’t stay,” she said.
A question mark or an exclamation mark replaces the comma, and the tag is still lower case, because it belongs to the same sentence:
“Why not?” he asked.
When no tag follows, the speech ends with a full stop inside the mark and whatever comes next is a new sentence:
“I can’t stay.” She picked up her coat.
When the tag comes first, a comma precedes the opening mark: She said, “I can’t stay.” When a tag splits one sentence of speech, the second half carries on in lower case: “I can’t stay,” she said, “not tonight.” When the tag sits between two complete sentences, the second starts with a capital: “I can’t stay,” she said. “Not tonight.” That difference, comma or full stop after the tag, is the one most often got wrong, and it is worth a pass of its own.
A new paragraph for every new speaker
Each time the speaker changes, start a new paragraph, even for one word. The paragraph break is what tells the reader the voice has changed; a tag only confirms it. Everything a character does while speaking, the action before and after the words, stays in that character’s paragraph. The moment another character moves or speaks, break.
“You said you’d be back by six.”
“I know.”
“It’s nine.”
“I know what time it is.”
An exchange like that needs no tags at all, because the alternation carries it. After three or four turns the reader starts to lose count, so re-anchor with a name or a beat, and always anchor again after a line of narration.
Tags and action beats
Said is invisible; readers slide over it, which is exactly what a tag is for. Asked is as quiet. Nearly everything else (exclaimed, interjected, opined) draws attention to the author instead of the speech. An adverb on a tag (she said angrily) is usually a sign that the line itself is not doing the work; make the words angry and cut the adverb.
An action beat is a short piece of action in place of a tag. It identifies the speaker and shows what they are doing at the same time:
“I can’t stay.” She picked up her coat.
Notice the full stop, not a comma: a beat is its own sentence, because picking up a coat is not a way of speaking. (“I can’t stay,” she shrugged is the common mistake; a shrug cannot say words.) Mix the three, tag, beat and nothing, so the rhythm stays alive, and do not tag a line the reader can already attribute.
Interruptions, trailing off and emphasis
Speech cut off by another speaker or by an event ends with an em dash inside the closing mark, with no full stop:
“I was going to tell you, I just—”
“Don’t.”
Speech that fades or falters ends with an ellipsis: “I thought maybe, if we…” A dash is a cut; an ellipsis is a trailing off. Readers feel the difference even if they could not name it.
An action that interrupts a line without stopping the speech goes between two dashes outside the quotation marks, with no commas:
“If you walk out now”—she stepped in front of the door—“you don’t come back.”
For emphasis, italicise one word, and rarely. Capitals and stacked exclamation marks read as shouting at the reader rather than at the other character.
Thoughts, and speech inside speech
A character’s thought never takes quotation marks. Direct thought in the character’s own words goes in italics (I can’t stay here, she thought), and in a close third-person or first-person narrative you can usually drop the italics and the tag, because the narration is already inside the character’s head: She couldn’t stay here. Not tonight. Choose one method per book.
When a character quotes someone else, the inner quotation takes the other kind of mark: “He said, ‘Go home,’ so I went,” in American practice, and the reverse in British.
Speech that runs over several paragraphs
When one speaker talks for more than a paragraph, open quotation marks at the start of every paragraph and close them only at the end of the last. The missing closing mark tells the reader that the same voice continues. A speech that needs the rule is usually a speech that needs a listener: break it with a question, a look or a beat, and the page will read faster.
Last, be consistent. Straight and curly marks mixed in one book, double marks in one chapter and single in the next, or a comma before said on one page and a full stop on the next are the things a copy editor fixes first, and a reader without a copy editor will feel them before they can say why.