"There's a tornado!" How to Punctuate Dialogue

Improperly punctuated dialogue is the most common technical mistake I see in the works I critique. There's something about those "quote" marks that sometimes throws people for a loop, so I decided to write a guide explaining how and why dialogue is punctuated the way it is.

Most punctuation problems happen when the dialogue is part of a larger sentence, so let's start there. These three sentences are correctly punctuated: 

• Cherise hopped into the kitchen. "I love unicorns," she said, and poured a box of rainbow fruity sugar-os into a pie tin. 
• Her little brother, James, climbed onto a chair and stared at the tin. "Is that pie?" he asked. He loved pie. 
• The backdoor slammed and Dad ran inside. "There's a tornado!" he yelled. No one loved tornadoes.

Here are some common ways I see sentences incorrectly punctuated: 

• "Tornadoes are scary." said Cherise.
• "Can I bring my pie?" Her brother asked.
• "No! Run to the storm shelter" Yelled Dad!
• Cherise jumped down from the table, "I hope it doesn't hit us."

Note: Sentences with blue backgrounds are wrong! Do not imitate them.

Dialogue that's part of a larger sentence is always accompanied by a "talking" verb. These talking verbs are also called "attribution tags" because they "attribute" the dialogue to a particular speaker. These are verbs that convey the idea of speaking, such as said, asked, yelled, whispered, replied, or muttered. (In all of these sentences, I have put the attribution after the dialogue. We'll talk about what happens if you put it before the dialogue in a bit.)

Structurally, a sentence like: 

• "Run to the storm shelter," said Dad.

is actually a big sentence with a little sentence tucked inside of it. The little sentence is, "Run to the storm shelter." The big sentence is, "Run to the storm shelter," said Dad. 

The fast and easy test to see if you have a big sentence with a little sentence inside of it or two independent sentences smooshed together is to go ahead and separate your sentences and see if your results make sense. If we separated this sentence, we would get:

• "Run to the storm shelter."
• Said Dad.

"Said Dad," all on its own, doesn't make sense. There has to be a thing in the sentence that Dad said, and that thing is the dialogue. So when you get to the end of the dialogue, even though you've come to the end of a sentence, the big sentence it's part of is still going. 

There are two ways we signal to the reader, "Hey! This isn't actually the end! This sentence keeps on going." 

First, if our dialogue is an ordinary sentence that would normally end with a period, we end it with a comma instead. The period is like a stop sign, signifying, "Stop! This is the end of the sentence." The comma says, "This is the end of part of the sentence, but more sentence is coming," as you can see. 

Thus you should never write:

• "Tornadoes are scary." said Cherise.

Since "said Cherise," isn't a sentence, we replace the period with a comma:

• "Tornadoes are scary," said Cherise.

This is correct.

If your dialogue is a question or exclamation, just use the exclamation point or question mark like you would normally, but the words following the dialogue are not capitalized:

• "Can I bring my pie?" her brother asked.
• "No! Run to the storm shelter!" yelled Dad.

Lack of capitals following a question mark or exclamation point is the second way we show that the sentence is still going. Otherwise, we'd be treating "Her brother asked," and "yelled Dad," like complete sentences. (The extra exclamation point was just plain silly.) 

By the way, if your smartphone is like mine, it can't tell the difference between a question/exclamation mark that ends a sentence completely versus one that ends a piece of dialogue contained within a larger sentence. Mine incorrectly auto-capitalizes after a question mark or exclamation point at the end of a piece of dialogue. Luckily, you know the difference.

What about: 

• Cherise jumped down from the table, "I hope it doesn't hit us."

Sometimes authors get so eager to do it right that they start using commas to join the dialogue with whatever independent sentences happen to be nearby. Again, use the splitting test:

• Cherise jumped down from the table.
• "I hope it doesn't hit us."

Both of these sentences make sense all on their own. They are independent sentences and should not be joined. This is correct: 

• Cherise jumped down from the table. "I hope it doesn't hit us."

This is stand-alone dialogue. It has no attribution tags because it's obvious from context who is speaking. Treat it like a totally normal sentence, but with quotation marks at the beginning and end. Here are some samples: 

• The wind howled as Dad unlocked the shelter door. "Get inside."
• Cherise ran into the cool, dark space beneath the house. "Why is the sky so green?" She shivered.
• "Wait!" James bolted for the barn. "We forgot Mittens!"

Stand-alone dialogue starts with a capital and ends with a period, question mark, or exclamation point. (No commas.) Any other sentences that follow or precede your dialogue also follow the normal punctuation rules.

What if the attribution tag comes before the dialogue?

• James ran to the barn and called, "Here, kitty kitty kitty."
• Dad chased him and yelled, "Come back!"
• Cherise watched the tornado touch down behind the barn. She wondered, "What if they don't make it?"

You always use a comma to separate the attribution tag from the dialogue and end the whole thing with a period, question mark, or exclamation point -- whichever punctuation the dialogue takes -- followed by the final quotation mark. This is kind of funny: only the dialogue truly has an ending punctuation mark. You should never write something like: 

• Dad asked, "Are you crazy?"!

This is wrong! 

If you're a programmer, the fact that only the nested sentence gets a closing mark may bother you. Punctuation is a courtesy, a way to signal, "You've reached the end," and one mark does so well enough. 

Sometimes, though, your sentence keeps going after the dialogue:

• James said, "There you are," and scooped up Mittens. "I will never leave you behind."
• Dad ran into the barn, yelled, "Are you crazy?" and picked up James and Mittens.
• "Hurry," said Cherise, banging on the door to the storm shelter, "It's coming!"

In the first sentence, we used a comma instead of a period to tell the reader, "Hey, this sentence is still going!" We did not capitalize "and" because that "and" does not start a new sentence. (This should sound familiar by now.) However, "I will never leave you behind" is its own sentence. It stands alone. 

These rules are the same for questions and exclamations. 

Let's pause to talk about verbs that are not dialogue tags. Sometimes authors try to tag their dialogue with verbs that don't actually express the idea of speech, like sighed, laughed, giggled, sobbed, or shrugged. Think about it: you cannot "shrug" a word. 

You might be able to sigh a word. It's debatable. Purists would say no. Creatives would say yes. It's a bit of a stylistic choice. Personally, I think laughed and sighed are okay occasionally, but you should be very careful and sparing about how you use these sorts of verbs.

Incidentally, tagging dialogue is one of the few times when it's generally best not to get too creative. "Said" is your practical, all-weather, heavy-duty attribution verb. Using "said" most of the time keeps the reader's attention focused on your story, rather than your fancy verb choices. Reserve the fancy verbs for special occasions. (For questions, use "asked.")

Finally, paragraphing. 

Use your paragraphs to organize the information in your story. When Cherise has something to say, I also tell the reader what she's doing. When I switch to something her brother is saying, I make a new paragraph. Compare: 

• Dad carried James and the cat into the shelter, and Cherise slammed the door behind them. "It's so loud!" said Cherise. "I know," agrees James. She clamped her hands over her ears. He held Mittens. The tornado roared overhead. She closed her eyes.

Vs:

• Dad carried James and the cat into the shelter, and Cherise slammed the door behind them.
• She clamped her hands over her ears and closed her eyes. "It's so loud!"
• "I know," agrees James. He held Mittens as the tornado roared overhead.

Some people go overboard in the opposite direction, giving each line of dialogue its own paragraph:

• The roar faded as the tornado headed away.
• "Whew."
• Said Dad.
• "That was a close one!"

Obviously this should be: 

• The roar faded as the tornado headed away. "Whew," said Dad, "that was a close one."

And finally: 

• When all was quiet again, Mittens flicked her tail. "Wow! That was a close call. Can you believe we almost got caught in a tornado? I mean, uh, meow," said the cat.
• Everyone laughed and hugged.

I hope that helps! Please leave a comment if you have any questions or if anything is unclear or if you catch any mistakes -- I'll be grateful.