: Re: How to break up dialog if some of the dialog is not in quotes? I have a technical question. In my story, I've several chunks of dialog where one character's response is a grunt or a groan

Personally, either may be correct, but visually the second broken up option is better. It better redirects the reader's mental view from William, to Elizabeth, then back to William.

Breaking paragraphs does this, and as an author it is your prerogative, a new paragraph is a signal to the reader to reset what they are looking at (in their imagination). Our natural inclination, in a conversation, is to look at the person we expect to speak next, or at the person that begins speaking. After William talks, it is better to break paragraph and look at Elizabeth to see her reaction (in speech or otherwise), how she received that information. After Elizabeth "answers" (with action or words or sound), we should break paragraph as we look back at William to see how he reacts.

This is the nature of how we talk, people that watch the face of a speaker have far higher comprehension rates than when they can only hear the same speaker.

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: Re: How to break up dialog if some of the dialog is not in quotes? I have a technical question. In my story, I've several chunks of dialog where one character's response is a grunt or a groan

More posts by @Odierno164

: Accidentally named fictional characters after a famous person I have been working on a project for about two years now. I've only just realized characters I created somewhat share a name with

: How do I write LGBT characters without looking like I'm trying to be politically correct? So I have a few characters now (two possibly three) who identify as LGBT. My problem is I'm worried

: Can religions like Islam or Hinduism be represented respectfully in a fictionalized/fantastical Earth? I asked this question in World-Building but it seems better fit for Writing. I ask for a

: You can have fun with it. For example, "Invader Zim" is, most of the time, evil vs. evil, but it's all humorous, so although you recognize Zim winning is bad, you don't mind so much. Also,

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