I need help with punctuation.

[Ed0613]

When writing and a character starts to speak you open quotation marks. If that character continues to speak but changes the subject and you start a new paragraph, do you close the quotes at the end of the first paragraph and reopen them with the new paragraph. or do you wait until the character quits speaking before you close the quotes?
Ed0613

 

[PennLady]

When writing and a character starts to speak you open quotation marks. If that character continues to speak but changes the subject and you start a new paragraph, do you close the quotes at the end of the first paragraph and reopen them with the new paragraph. or do you wait until the character quits speaking before you close the quotes?
Ed0613

When a character speaks across paragraphs, you open each new paragraph with a quote and put a close quote when the character is done speaking. Like this:

"You see," John said, "it's not as easy as it looks. Finding the parts and putting them together properly is difficult.

"For one thing, you can't be sure that you'll find everything you need at one time. Or whether they will be the right size or model or make.

"When you do have all the pieces, assuming they are the right set, you still may find that factory errors make putting them together impossible."

Sorry, lousy actual dialogue but it was spur of the moment.

 

[sr71plt]

PennLady provided the punctuation answer, but would like to make sure you realize that you don't have to go into a new paragraph just because the dialogue speaker changes topic. That's not what determines the need to open a new paragraph in dialogue. Line length determines that. This punctuation technique should be kept for when dialogue paragraphs get quite long and there needs to be a new paragraph (about 20 lines in print; fewer in on-screen text).

 

[PennLady]

PennLady provided the punctuation answer, but would like to make sure you realize that you don't have to go into a new paragraph just because the dialogue speaker changes topic. That's not what determines the need to open a new paragraph in dialogue. Line length determines that. This punctuation technique should be kept for when dialogue paragraphs get quite long and there needs to be a new paragraph (about 20 lines in print; fewer in on-screen text).

Thanks. I didn't know that. I don't tend to think of it that way but I think I end up doing that anyway.

 

[elfin_odalisque]

PennLady provided the punctuation answer, but would like to make sure you realize that you don't have to go into a new paragraph just because the dialogue speaker changes topic. That's not what determines the need to open a new paragraph in dialogue. Line length determines that. This punctuation technique should be kept for when dialogue paragraphs get quite long and there needs to be a new paragraph (about 20 lines in print; fewer in on-screen text).

Agree, but, from reading, I have noticed a way fiction writers handle this. To break up a long dialogue paragraph containing change of topic or focus, writers often insert a tag between topics to create a pause. Such as, 'bla, bla, bla,' I said. 'Totally different topic'. It is still the same paragraph but readers get a heads-up to flag the change.

To add, I find, on lit's backlit, rolling screen, a paragraph more than 8 (max 10) lines is the limit for readability.