: Re: Are there exceptions to starting a new paragraph for every speaker? I know that it's one of the golden rules to start a new paragraph every time there's dialogue from a new speaker, but my

@Pierce369

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I actually disagree with the other answers. I think there are occasionally situations where it's preferable to break this rule.
The most obvious one that I can think of is that you want to emphasise that the speech is very closely related (for instance, if two people speak simultaniously, as in your example). I think something like the following is perfectly ok, for example:

Tom and Katherine yelled "No way!" simultaneously, followed only a fraction of a second later by Barry's significantly softer, "Of course", and an even quieter, almost imperceptible "Hmm, maybe" from Steve.

This gives a very different effect to:

"No way!" yelled Tom and Katherine, simultaneously.
This was followed a fraction of a second later by Barry's significantly softer "Of course".
"Hmm, maybe." Steve's voice was so quiet as to be almost imperceptible.

The difference is that in the first example, all of the speech feels like it's part of a single action. There are (presumably) obvious reasons why writers don't generally want this effect, and why the "new character speaking, new paragraph" rule exists, but in those rare moments when it's exactly what you need, I think it's silly to obsess over the "rules" at the expense of the experience.

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