Questions on grammar in Dialogue

[Jmanchu]

So I'm working on a story, well, several, and one of the stories has sometimes longer speaking parts: Speeches and rants by kings and political figures that run longer than a healthy paragraph would allow.

I know how it's generally done in stories that follow the standard grammar style to a make a new paragraph with starting the next line with an indentation.
Like this:

INDENTCharacter starts speech, "Dialogue or speech with new
paragraph indentation... some dialogue here... Blah, blah.
End the paragraph without closing quote bracket.
INDENT"Continue with another opening bracket..... Yada Yada
Yada. End this sentence with closing dialogue bracket."


But how does one go about doing it when one follows the general "empty line, between block of texts, to separate paragraphs" done here?

Is it the same way but just with the different grammar rule? Example:

Character starts speech, "Dialogue or new speech without
new paragraph indentation... some dialogue here...... Blah,
Blah. End the paragraph without closing quote bracket.

"Continue with another opening bracket..... Yada Yada Yada.
End this sentence with closing dialogue bracket."

 

[HectorBidon]

Is it the same way ?

Yes. The way you punctuate the speech in the last two paragraphs of your post is correct. The " symbol is usually called a quotation mark.

 

[Voboy]

Yes. The way you punctuate the speech in the last two paragraphs of your post is correct. The " symbol is usually called a quotation mark.

Agreed.

I'd break up the dialogue, myself. Give the reader a chance to reset.

 

[Jmanchu]

Yes. The way you punctuate the speech in the last two paragraphs of your post is correct. The " symbol is usually called a quotation mark.

So then it can work the same way, either way. Thanks for letting me know. Yeah I called them quote brackets because I wanted to be specific about the usage of the quotation mark here.

"open quotation bracket, close quotation mark"

vs.

INDENT"open quotation mark,
Keep open.>
INDENT"open again quotation mark with new paragraph. Close bracket here.>"

 

[SimonDoom]

Yes, you do it the same way.

A suggestion: If you are concerned that the block of dialogue is too long, you could break it up with a bit of narrative. Example:

The king overlooked the crowd from his window and began to speak.

"Subjects, yada yada, I'm your king. Yada yada."

He paused for a moment, enjoying the attention, and resumed.

"I have more to say. Yada yada."

 

[Jmanchu]

Agreed.

I'd break up the dialogue, myself. Give the reader a chance to reset.

Yeah, I'm trying to make sure there's action and a feeling of the characters expressing themselves as they give speeches(There aren't a lot, but there are just two cases of it. So far. I was thinking of rewriting one long rant to have more characters jump in, but the situation is how much is permissible when it's a king going on a rant. It's not too long, but it's enough that I had to break it down into two paragraphs to make it more palatable.

 

[Jmanchu]

Yes, you do it the same way.

A suggestion: If you are concerned that the block of dialogue is too long, you could break it up with a bit of narrative. Example:

The king overlooked the crowd from his window and began to speak.

"Subjects, yada yada, I'm your king. Yada yada."

He paused for a moment, enjoying the attention, and resumed.

"I have more to say. Yada yada."

Okay. I see what you and Voboy are saying about breaking it up. That's an easy solution after all. That's much more palatable.

And it's good to know that multi paragraph dialogue works the same way. Thanks everyone here for answering my questions.

 

[SimonDoom]

Okay. I see what you and Voboy are saying about adding description. That's an easy solution after all. That's much more palatable.

And it's good to know that multi paragraph dialogue works the same way. Thanks everyone here for answering my questions.

It's one of the simplest tips to make your writing easier and more fun to read: mix it up. Mix narrative and dialogue. Try to avoid excessively long uninterrupted stretches of either.

 

[Voboy]

Yeah, I'm trying to make sure there's action and a feeling of the characters expressing themselves as they give speeches(There aren't a lot, but there are just two cases of it. So far. I was thinking of rewriting one long rant to have more characters jump in, but the situation is how much is permissible when it's a king going on a rant. It's not too long, but it's enough that I had to break it down into two paragraphs to make it more palatable.

"My people! I am your king!"

The king droned on while Joanne and I exchanged an eye-roll. Holy fuck, how long did this windbag have to keep talking? Had there ever been a man who better enjoyed the sound of his own squeaky voice? I tuned back in briefly to make sure the crowned dickhead hadn't stopped, then went back to thinking about how Joanne's mouth would feel around my cock.

"And furthermore..."

Yup. Pretty damn good, her mouth fluttering across my head while I tried to avoid blowing my load. Let's see... what could I think about to take my mind off her blowjob? Oh. That's right. I'd just remember some pretentious fuckwad, continuing a speech gone FAR too long.

"So, in closing..."




Something like that would work.

 

[Jmanchu]

It's one of the simplest tips to make your writing easier and more fun to read: mix it up. Mix narrative and dialogue. Try to avoid excessively long uninterrupted stretches of either.

Yeah. The way I have it now, is looking better after following tips here between you and Voboy. Moved a small bit of narration that was originally a part of the second paragraph to be a paragraph of its own to break down the two paragraphs more cleanly. I did have narration before, but the descriptions were together with the dialogue and the paragraph they were a part of, instead of their own paragraphs altogether.

I'd post to show the snippet what I mean, but I don't want to impose more than needed. Plus, I think it looks a lot better now already. Just gonna work the other speech the same way. Again, thanks all.

And I like that example Voboy, lol.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Same way, though I've been "corrected" by readers who weren't aware of the convention.

 

[jehoram]

Yes, you do it the same way.

A suggestion: If you are concerned that the block of dialogue is too long, you could break it up with a bit of narrative. Example:

The king overlooked the crowd from his window and began to speak.

"Subjects, yada yada, I'm your king. Yada yada."

He paused for a moment, enjoying the attention, and resumed.

"I have more to say. Yada yada."

I'd go with that. It breaks up the dialog into easily digestible pieces, yet makes it clear that the new paragraph doesn't indicate a shift in who's doing the talking.

 

[Athalia]

I'd go with that. It breaks up the dialog into easily digestible pieces, yet makes it clear that the new paragraph doesn't indicate a shift in who's doing the talking.

That. Please remember that for some readers, reading is hard. They need all the help they can get.

I was just reading a nineteenth-century account of a traveler's experiences. In places, the account's sentences were so laboriously constructed, with all sorts of dependent clauses and florid adjectives, that I had to read them three times to get the sense of them. That was the style back then, when the writer felt he needed to be as abstruse as possible to display his mastery of the written word.

Thankfully, we live in clearer times now, although some politicians of note seem to have some trouble with clarity.