IMPORTANT: FIRST AND FOREMOST, ALL PUNCTUATION GOES INSIDE THE QUOTATION MARKS. (")
-Example
Wrong: "It's so great to see you"!
Right: "It's so great to see you!"
There is no reason, in a creative work of writing, that the punctuation should be outside of the quotation marks.
(2) Tagging dialogue.
When you are telling the reader who is saying the sentence, you should label it unless it was already previously stated. You need to do this especially when there are more than two characters in the conversation. If there are only two characters, and you have already established in which order they are speaking, this is not totally necessary. It is helpful, however, to the audience in case they get confused. (Particularly when the two characters are trading dialogue pretty quickly.)
Furthermore, you should not capitalize the tag unless it is a name or (I) because that is a proper pronoun and always needs to be capitalized.
-Example
Wrong: "Hey," i said.
Wrong (2): "Stop it," He said.
Wrong (3): "Shut up!" She said.
Right: "Hey," I said.
Right (2): "Stop it," he said.
Right (3): "Shut up!" she said.
(3) Commas when addressing people!!!
This is a very commonly forgotten rule, but it is correct grammar. When you are addressing a person, you must put a comma before their name. Or after, depending on the sentence.
-Example
Wrong: "Hey Ruby."
Wrong (2): "Ruby you forgot your lunch!"
Wrong (3): Way to go Ruby, I thought.
Right: "Hey, Ruby."
Right (2): "Ruby, you forgot your lunch!"
Right (3): Way to go, Ruby, I thought.
As you can see, this rule doesn't only apply to dialogue. It's whenever you're addressing a person/character, even in thought.
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THIS IS NOT MEANT TO OFFEND ANYONE OR SINGLE AN AUTHOR OUT. THIS BOOK IS MEANT TO BE HELPFUL AND I AM REALLY SORRY IF YOU ARE OFFENDED BY IT. I AM NOT AN ENGLISH TEACHER, I JUST HAVE HAD REALLY GOOD ONES IN THE PAST WHO HAVE TAUGHT ME THESE THINGS. IF YOU SEE ANYTHING WRONG, PLEASE POINT IT OUT AND I WILL DO SOME RESEARCH ON IT/CORRECT IT IF NEED BE.
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How to Improve Your Writing
Non-FictionSome things that will be in this book: Grammar, dialogue, character, plot and how to avoid being too cliché advice. This is a book to help improve your writing. Some mistakes can turn readers away from reading your book, which means that your book...
