: Re: Questions with flat tone in dialogue I'm sure we have all heard people say questions without putting the tone inflection on the end. I am writing a novel and I have a piece of dialogue

@Fox6458700

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I've encountered the same issue myself while writing and here's how I've tried to deal with it (options):
1. Quickly establish the mood beforehand: Kyra's tone was flat. "God, why are you here?"
2. Describe the question's tone immediately after before continuing with dialogue: "Why are you here?" she asked flatly. "This is a bad time." (I guess this one is kind of obvious).
3. If you play your cards right, italics might also help show your character's tone, too.
Side Idea: In an attempt to make character voice more unique, I have referred to flat questions like the one you are describing like this: “Why couldn’t you sleep?” she inquires. It’s a question-statement hybrid. Her voice doesn’t go up at the end. Then I could just use that term from then on forward and it would quickly communicate to the reader that the question isn't quite a question without stunting the flow of a scene: “It’s remarkable you haven’t caught this sickness yet. You’re perfectly healthy, aren’t you?” Question-statement hybrid.
Overall, it works for me either way, but the oddity of seeing a question without a question mark on the end can give me pause and potentially put a kink in the flow of a scene.

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