: Re: What tense should the dialogues be in a first person singular write-ups? I am writing my novel in first person singular in the past tense as narrated by the protagonist. So obviously the narrative

First of all, dialog is a bit looser than narrative language because people do not use perfect grammar when speaking, so there's no real "right way" to say it.

That said, all dialog in a story is a quote from someone, be they real or imagining. The one rule with quotes is that it must be transcribed directly rather than parsed into your own words. Thus, any grammar errors on the speaker's part are permissible because you are writing what someone who isn't you said. Dialog should also be timely to the moment of speech, not the moment of writing which presumably your narrative voice is doing after the fact.

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: Re: What tense should the dialogues be in a first person singular write-ups? I am writing my novel in first person singular in the past tense as narrated by the protagonist. So obviously the narrative

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: MS Word: images and lists break paragraph formatting I've set up styles so that my paragraphs under level 4 headings stick together. To this end, I've set "Widow/Orphan control", "Keep with next",

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