Question regarding a rejection due to punctuation issues during dialogue.

[LilyListens]

Hey everyone.

I have written a story and sort of followed the flow that I am used to when it comes to dialogue. Part one of that story got through without any objections, but the second part got rejected for the titular issues. Now I am wondering what the specific formatting problem is. I think I have narrowed it down to the way I punctuate dialogue within an ongoing sentence, by adding a comma after the quotation marks, even if there has been punctuation in the speech right before. Here's an example for that from my story:

"She's my girlfriend.", Bryson said.
"Just friends...", Imogen stated.​

And the correct way to format that in accordance to the expectations here would look more like:

"She's my girlfriend." Bryson said.
"Just friends..." Imogen stated.​

Is that correct or could the issue be somewhere else?

 

[NotWise]

Hey everyone.

I have written a story and sort of followed the flow that I am used to when it comes to dialogue. Part one of that story got through without any objections, but the second part got rejected for the titular issues. Now I am wondering what the specific formatting problem is. I think I have narrowed it down to the way I punctuate dialogue within an ongoing sentence, by adding a comma after the quotation marks, even if there has been punctuation in the speech right before. Here's an example for that from my story:

"She's my girlfriend.", Bryson said.
"Just friends...", Imogen stated.​

And the correct way to format that in accordance to the expectations here would look more like:

"She's my girlfriend." Bryson said.
"Just friends..." Imogen stated.​

Is that correct or could the issue be somewhere else?

The first should be:

"She's my girlfriend," Bryson said.

I don't know how to punctuate around the ellipsis in the second sentence.

 

[LilyListens]

Thanks! That already helped, I think. I might have to dig into the story again.

 

[Todger65]

You found the main problem yourself and removed the comma from after the quote. Laurel will always reject that as it is not the American way. All punctuation marks should be within the quotation/speech marks, is the correct format.

 

[geronimo_appleby]

The first should be:

"She's my girlfriend," Bryson said.

I don't know how to punctuate around the ellipsis in the second sentence.

i'd just let the ellipsis stand alone inside the quotation marks. looks neater that way?

 

[ElectricBlue]

i'd just let the ellipsis stand alone inside the quotation marks. looks neater that way?

That would be correct, yes. Treat the ellipsis the same as for any other punctuation mark, keep it within the speech marks.

 

[dmallord]

Good Lit Reference for dialogue punctuation

Hey everyone.

I have written a story and sort of followed the flow that I am used to when it comes to dialogue. Part one of that story got through without any objections, but the second part got rejected for the titular issues. Now I am wondering what the specific formatting problem is. I think I have narrowed it down to the way I punctuate dialogue within an ongoing sentence, by adding a comma after the quotation marks, even if there has been punctuation in the speech right before. Here's an example for that from my story:

"She's my girlfriend.", Bryson said.
"Just friends...", Imogen stated.​

And the correct way to format that in accordance to the expectations here would look more like:

"She's my girlfriend." Bryson said.
"Just friends..." Imogen stated.​

Is that correct or could the issue be somewhere else?

+++++

Whispersecret has a good article on lit regarding punctuation in dialogue:

https://www.literotica.com/s/how-to-make-characters-talk?comments_after=10717169