Punctuation with dialogue
From Create Your Own Story
"Hello," she said.
In this basic example, she said is known as the speaker tag. The dialogue (the words spoken) is enclosed in quotes and the tag is separated from the dialogue by another punctuation mark, which is enclosed inside the quotes. In this case, the mark is a comma.
"What's up?" she said.
In this example, the mark is a question mark.
"Hello." She waved at me.
Here, there is dialogue followed by an action. The action is a separate sentence, and so she is capitalized.
"Hello," she waved at me.
Wrong. She can't wave her words.
"Hello," she said while waving at me.
Much better.
"I'm not sure," she said, "if I'm doing this right."
Here, the speaker tag is placed in the middle of a line of dialogue. Therefore, there is a punctuation mark inside the first set of quote marks and then there is another punctuation mark after the tag and before the quote marks that signify the continuation of the dialogue.
"I'm not sure about this," she said, "Am I doing this right?"
In this example, no, you're not. Since there are two separate lines of dialogue, this should be:
"I'm not sure about this," she said. "Am I doing this right?"
"I'm not sure about this." She scratched her head. "Am I doing this right?"
Here, there's an action taking place in between lines of dialogue. Therefore, she is capitalized. You have three separate sentences.
Dialogue can get a bit complicated, but if you want your reader to feel as if they're there in the story, you'll use it. It works best when punctuated properly. And it's generally a good idea to move to a new paragraph whenever you change speakers.
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