Punctuating Speech

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Punctuating Speech

Correctly punctuating direct speech can be a pain. Speech punctuation has its own special rules, and there are no real tricks for learning them: you just have to memorize them. At least they’re consistent, unlike that whole "i before e except after c except when it isn't" thing.

Basics first. Start a new paragraph every time there's a new speaker. Everything that's spoken goes inside the speech marks, including the punctuation that goes with the speech. Like this:

"The least you can do is kiss it better."
"Oh, what a lovely tattoo, can I see more?"

The trick is punctuating between the end of the speech and the 'he said' bit. Most commonly, the 'he said' comes after the speech. In this case, place a comma at the end of the speech, and a lower-case letter afterwards. Like this:

“Never point a weapon like that at someone unless you plan to use it right,” he said with a grin.
"You're going to ruin your hands doing that," Shadow commented.

If the speech ends in a question mark, exclamation mark, or ellipsis (...), use this punctuation instead of the comma. It's still a lower-case letter.

"I meant the hiring staff part!" he suddenly hollered.
"Can I have some more? Please?" he asked Ghetsuhm, his emerald eyes looking at the redhead hopefully.

When the 'he said' bit starts the sentence, it has a comma between it and the speech. BUT, the speech still starts with a capital letter. Like this:

Then reflectively she responded, "I'm not kissing that, there's dog slobber and blood all over it ..."
Aloud, she said, "Pity. Ah well, can't have everyone."

Now, sometimes, the 'he said' bit comes in the middle of the spoken sentence. In this case (stay with me, it's tricky) it goes, comma at the end of the first piece of speech, and another comma before resuming the speech. The next word within the speech marks has a lower-case letter, because it's continuing the sentence. Like this:

“I am not,” he said, “particularly happy about this.”
"Remind me," he told Foxx, "not to whine so much the next time you want to get out of bed."

It doesn't happen often on the boards, but sometimes, say when someone is telling a story, you have to start a new paragraph within a speech. In this case, there is no closing speech mark at the end of the first paragraph, but there is an opening speech mark at the start of the second. I struggled to find an example of this, so my apologies for the following.

"...I spent so long being what men wanted me to be, being some part of myself with one, another part with another... with you, I can be absolutely, entirely me. I belong to you, am bound to you, more completely than ever before, and yet I am free.

"Galain... you make me so happy. You've taught me so much, made me so much stronger. I'm finished with doubt, with worrying about what others might think..."

A Special Note for Fantasy Writers

These rules also apply to unspoken speech: that is, when two characters communicate telepathically. So...

Arianne, Ro sent ahead, meet me at the Golden Gryphon Inn.
Oh yes, I'm coming back, Galain silently replied.
Have you decided on a name yet? he asked.

Extra Additions

More and more, we’re seeing speech that looks like this:

Her face cleared, "you're the bartender Marius hired, the one with the hair!”

This is incorrect. It should be:

Her face cleared. "You're the bartender Marius hired, the one with the hair!”

This is because ‘her face cleared’ is a complete sentence, so it ends with a full stop, whether there’s speech after it or not. When the speech starts, you’re starting a sentence, so you use a capital letter. If, however, the sentence went:

Her face clearing, Ghet said, “You’re the bartender Marius hired, the one with the hair!”

you’d have a comma rather than a full stop, because ‘her face clearing, Ghet said’ isn’t a sentence on its own. If you can’t work it out, try removing the speech completely. If what you have left is a sentence, use a full stop. If it isn’t, use a comma.

The same goes for inserts like that in the middle of speech: if it’s a sentence, let it be a sentence. End it with a full stop and start the next sentence, speech or not, with a capital letter. If it’s confusing, err on the side of using the full stop, like this:

“Anything broken?” he asked the other man cheerily. “Aside from your pride, that is.”

Try pulling out the non-speech ‘insert’ and seeing how you’d write it then. If it would be two separate sentences:

“Anything broken? Aside from your pride, that is.”

then keep that capital letter in there.

NOTE: Never, ever, ever close speech marks without using any punctuation. That’s always wrong. -- ###

Via Bardic Web, a fantastic English language resource.