Edit like an Editor: A Wattpad Featured Guide ✔

Part ii. How to Properly Format Dialogue

Attribution

To know how to properly format dialogue, I will first brief you on attributions. I will explain further regarding attributions in the next part.

Basically, attributions are the words that go with the quoted dialogue that tell the reader who's talking, and even sometimes how they're talking. Attributions are also known as dialogue tags.

Take this conversation for example:

"Let's play at the blackjack table first," Hermes said.

"How much are you willing to wager?" the dealer asked.

"One-hundred thousand," Hermes said.

"Are you sure, Hermes? That seems like an awful lot to start out with," Claire questioned.

All attributions are underlined. They tell the reader who said what.

Commas in Dialogue

You usually use commas to introduce attribution such as he said and she asked. For example:

"I'm feeling exceptionally lucky tonight, Claire," Hermes said.

The only other time you don't use a comma is when the dialogue ends in a question mark or an exclamation mark. For example:

"Are you sure?" Claire asked again.

"Yes!" he said.

Formatting Attribution

Notice how in the previous example the 'he' in 'he said' is lowercase. An attribution is an addition to the dialogue, so it should be lowercase.

Never should you have the following dialogue:

"Were you dealt a good hand?" She asked.

"It looks like luck is on my side," He said.

Those should be lowercase. However, if the attribution begins with a name, it is uppercase:

"Oh, wow!" Claire said.

An easy way to process this is the attribution is in the same sentence as the dialogue, so it should be lowercase.

Formatting Dialogue

When a character imitates another in dialogue, you format it in single quotation marks. For example:

"And never ask if I was 'dealt a good hand.' It could risk my chances," Hermes said.

I'd also like to point out that the period is inside the quotation mark.

When you are writing a character stuttering or taking long pauses in dialogue, you may use ellipses or em dashes.

"I... I didn't know. I'm sorry."

"I—I didn't know. I'm sorry."

When formatting with ellipses, make sure there are three (3) periods and a space after before the next word.

When formatting with em dashes, there are no spaces between the words and em dashes.

Placement of Attribution