Formatting Dialogue in Fiction

Okay, this seems to be one of the biggest errors I see in fiction so I thought I’d have a good at writing a guide for aspiring writers. I mean, the odd slip up is fine, isn’t it? We can forgive just the odd mistake… but what I hate is when writers just clearly don’t know how to format dialogue. It’s okay though, formatting dialogue isn’t even the hard part – writing realistic dialogue is!
So, here we go, I’ll try make this as simple as possible. I’m going to try and break this down as simply as possible.

Rule 1: New speaker, new paragraph

“Hello” said Carol.

“Oh, Hi Carol. How are you” replied Max.

Rule 2: All punctuation should come inside the quotation marks

NOT: “Hello”, said Carol.

Correct: “Hello,” said Carol.

Rule 3: Correct Punctuation 

A line of dialogue that’s followed by a tag such as “said Carol”, “replied Max” should NEVER end in a full stop. The tag should always be in lower case. If the dialogue comes to the end of the sentence, use a comma instead of a full stop so that the sentence continues uninterrupted.

NOT: “Hello.” Said Carol.

Correct: “Hello,” said Carol.

“Oh, hi Carol. How are you?” replied Max.

Rule 4: The first letter of a dialogue line should be capitalised

Not: “hello,” said Carol. 

OR: He smiled and said, “how are you?” 

Correct: “Hello,” said Carol.

He smiled and said, “How are you?”

Rule 5: If dialogue is interrupted by a tag, don’t capitalise the next part; it isn’t a new sentence

NOT: “I’m fine, but lately I’ve been getting some cramps,” she said as she rubbed her stomach, “In my lower abdomen.”

Correct: “I’m fine, but lately I’ve been getting some cramps,” she said as she rubbed her stomach, “in my lower abdomen.”

Rule 6: However, if the sentence is broken, use a capital letter

NOT: “I’m fine,” she said. Then she put her hand to her stomach. “well, I have been getting cramps in my lower abdomen.”

Correct: “I’m fine,” she said. Then she put her hand to her stomach. “Well, I have been getting cramps in my lower abdomen.”

If there are any rules you're unsure about, please feel free to leave a comment and I will put it up on this post!