How to use quote marks in fiction writing

4/11/2019

Here's how to use quote marks (or speech marks) according to publishing convention in your fiction writing. The guidance covers both US English and UK English conventions.

In this post, I cover the following:

What quote marks are used for
Omitting a closing quote mark in dialogue
Whether to use single or double quote marks
Whether to use straight or curly quote marks
Where the closing quote mark goes in relation to other punctuation
When not to use quote marks

What quote marks are used for
Quote marks are used in 3 ways in fiction:

Character dialogue
To distance the narrator from what's being reported
To denote song titles and other works

Character dialogue
Quote marks show that we’re reporting what someone else is saying or said.

Each new speaker's dialogue should appear on a new line and include opening and closing quote marks.

That puzzled me. ‘What do they need them for?’ I asked Hawthorne.
‘Latent footprints,’ he replied. ‘They need to eliminate you from the enquiry.’

The Word is Murder (p. 208), Anthony Horowitz, Arrow 2018

To distance the narrator from what's being reported
The tone of the distancing rendered by the quote marks will depend on narrative intent. Perhaps the voice is sarcastic. Or the author might want the reader to suspend belief by indicating that a character considers a word or phrase unreliable.

Imagine the character is saying so-called or supposed or allegedly before the word in quotes.

'What about your friends? Didn't they help?' Molly said.
Peter almost laughed. The last time his 'friends' had phoned or visited had been over six months ago. Two had wanted money, Another needed business advice. A fourth had spent the evening flirting with his now ex-wife.

A word of caution: Don't be tempted to differentiate distancing terms in the narrative from dialogue by using an alternate style. If there are double speech marks around the dialogue, there should be double marks around the distancing words.

NON-STANDARD (USING DOUBLES AS BASE STYLE)
"What about your friends? Didn't they help?" Molly said.
Peter almost laughed. The last time his 'friends' had phoned or visited had been over six months ago. Two had wanted money, Another needed business advice. A fourth had spent the evening flirting with his now ex-wife.

STANDARD (USING DOUBLES AS BASE STYLE)
"What about your friends? Didn't they help?" Molly said.
Peter almost laughed. The last time his "friends" had phoned or visited had been over six months ago. Two had wanted money, Another needed business advice. A fourth had spent the evening flirting with his now ex-wife.

To denote song titles and other works
Quote marks are also used to identify certain published works such as song titles and book chapter titles.

So, for example, if a writer is referring to an album or book title, this is rendered in italic. However, when it comes to a song on an album, or a chapter in a book, it's conventional to use quote marks.

Jamie pulled the vinyl from its sleeve. The White Album. His favourite. Well, 'Back in the USSR' anyway. He'd never admit it but he didn't much care for the other songs.

Omitting a closing quote mark in dialogue
There's one occasion where it's acceptable to omit the closing speech mark in dialogue: same speaker, new paragraph.

So, if you want your dialogue to take a new paragraph while retaining the current speaker, use a quotation mark at start of the new line but omit the closing one at the end of the previous paragraph.

‘[…] My father described the regular pom-pom-pom of the cannons and the increasingly high-pitched wails of the planes as they dived. He said he’d heard them every night since.
‘The last day of the battle he was standing on the bridge when they saw a plane emerging. […] Then he jumped overboard and was gone.’

The Bat (p. 251), Jo Nesbo, Vintage, 2013

Single versus double quote marks
There’s no rule, just convention.

There are lots of Englishes: US, UK, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, South African, Indian, etc. Each has its own preferences and idiosyncrasies.

Focus on which English your audience will expect, and punctuate your writing accordingly. Whichever style you choose, the main thing is be consistent.

In the UK, it’s more common to use single quote marks. And if there’s a quote within the quote, that’s a double. You might hear quotes within quotes called nested quotes.
In US English it’s conventional to use double quote marks with nested singles.

Ray studied his drink and narrowed his eyes. ‘You can be cruel sometimes, you know. I don’t know where you got it from. “How sharper than a serpent’s tooth …” Your mother didn’t have a cruel bone in her body.’

Sleeping in the Ground (p. 261), Peter Robinson, Hodder & Stoughton, 2017

“I had no idea why he was bringing that up now. So when I asked him he said, ‘Remember when the going got tough, who was there for you. Remember your old man was right there holding your hand. Always think of me trying to do the right thing, honey. Always. No matter what.’”

The Fix (p. 428), David Baldacci, Pan Books, 2017

If you choose double quote marks, use the correct symbol, not two singles.

Straight versus curly quote marks
Curly quote marks are more conventionally known as smart quotes.

It’s conventional in mainstream publishing to use smart or curly quotation marks, not unidirectional ones.

Changing straight quotes to smart quotes is one of the initial clean-up jobs an editor will carry out when they start work on a file. To prevent the problem occurring from the minute you begin typing:

Go to FILE and select OPTIONS
Select PROOFING, then click on the AUTOCORRECT OPTIONS button
Choose the AUTOFORMAT AS YOU TYPE tab
Make sure there’s a tick in the "STRAIGHT QUOTES" WITH “SMART QUOTES” box
Click on OK

If you’ve pasted material into your book from elsewhere, or you didn’t check autocorrect options before you began typing, there might be some rogue unidirectional marks in your file. To change them quickly, do a global find/replace:

Select CTRL+H on your keyboard to open FIND AND REPLACE
Type a quotation mark into the FIND WHAT box
Type the same quotation mark into the REPLACE WITH box
Click on the REPLACE ALL button

The closing quote mark in relation to other punctuation
In fiction, punctuation related to dialogue is placed similarly whether you're writing in US or UK style: within the quote marks.

Here are some examples:

"Don't move a muscle," Stephen said.
"My God! Is that Jonathan? He looks fabulous."
“Maybe you don't think we've met but I can assure—”
Dave glanced at the signature tattoo on the Matt’s hand. ‘That looks familiar. Who inked you?’
‘Never.’ I sized up the door and the window. ‘I love you ...'

However, there's a difference when it comes to distancing or cited works. Note the different placement of the commas and full stops in the US and UK examples. In US English, the commas come before the closing quotation marks; in UK English, they come after.

US English convention: Peter's "friends," the ones who hadn't bothered to find out if he was okay after his wife ditched him, seemed oddly keen to get in touch now that he'd won the lottery.
UK English convention: Peter's 'friends', the ones who hadn't bothered to find out if he was okay after his wife ditched him, seemed oddly keen to get in touch now that he'd won the lottery.

US English convention: "Favourite Jimi Hendrix songs? 'Foxy Lady,' 'Hey Joe,' and 'Purple Haze.'"
UK English convention: 'Favourite Jimi Hendrix songs? "Foxy Lady", "Hey Joe", and 'Purple Haze".'

When not to use quote marks
There are 2 issues to consider here:

Thoughts
Emphasis

Thoughts
CMOS at section 13.43 says you can use quote marks to indicate thought, imagined dialogue and other internal discourse if you want to. However, I recommend you don't. For one thing, I can’t remember the last time I saw this approach used in commercial fiction coming out of a mainstream publisher’s stable.

But the best reason for not putting thoughts in quote marks is because it might confuse your reader. The beauty of quote marks – or speech marks – is that they indicate speech. Let them do their job!

Emphasis
It can be tempting to use quote marks in your writing to draw attention to a word or phrase, but it’s rarely necessary and could even have the opposite effect to what you intended. It works instead as a distancing tool, as discussed above.

If you’re tempted to use quote marks for emphasis, imagine saying the sentence out loud, and making air quotes with your fingers as you speak. Would your character/narrator say it like that? If the answer's no, leave out the quote marks. Italic will work better. Or recast your dialogue so that the reader can work out where to place the stress themselves.

Summing up
If in doubt about how to use quote marks for your book, consult a style manual. I recommend the Chicago Manual of Style, the Penguin Guide to Punctuation and New Hart’s Rules, all of which offer industry-standard guidance.

Fancy listening instead?
If you'd prefer to listen to the advice offered here, Denise Cowle (a non-fiction editor) and I chat about how to use quote marks in all types of writing on The Editing Podcast. You can listen right here or via Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favourite podcast platform

Louise Harnby is a line editor, copyeditor and proofreader who specializes in working with crime, mystery, suspense and thriller writers.

She is an Advanced Professional Member of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP), a member of ACES, a Partner Member of The Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi), and co-hosts The Editing Podcast.

Get in touch: Louise Harnby | Fiction Editor & Proofreader
Connect: Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, Facebook and LinkedIn
Learn: Books and courses
Discover: Resources for authors and editors

12 Comments

Rich Leder link

4/11/2019 08:55:31 pm

Good one, Louise. Perfect for geek grammar wannabes like me.

Louise Harnby

5/11/2019 09:42:27 am

Cheers, Rich! I've covered some of the peskier punctuation - quote marks, dashes, semi-colons and apostrophes - but there's more to come!

Virginia Anderson link

4/1/2020 04:23:19 pm

I'd saved this post from earlier and have just checked in. You have a wonderful way of explaining clearly, with good examples. Not only did you note a problem I see often (U.S. writers thinking that "distanced" words should be in single quotes), but you also told me something I didn't know, and I'm a grammar geek: that U.K. editing places quote marks inside the punctuation in nested quotes. I'd seen that practice but hadn't made the leap to generalizing to the rule.

I'm reblogging from Chris Graham's site to my blog, justcanthelpwriting.com. Wish you had a reblog button! Thanks.

4/1/2020 08:47:04 pm

Hi, Virginia! Thanks so much.

Sorry about the reblog button. There's no such functionality with Weebly. I've seen people in the community asking for one but nothing's happened yet!

Cat

23/11/2020 05:17:13 pm

Hi Louise!

This has been so useful, thank you. I do have a little query, if you don't mind?

Regarding the following:

"So, if you want your dialogue to take a new paragraph while retaining the current speaker, use a quotation mark at start of the new line but omit the closing one at the end of the previous paragraph."

Would this be the same for children's picture books? E.g. A character is speaking then the speech ends in ellipses as often happens in picture books, but the speech continues on the next page. Would I still omit the speech marks on the first page and use a quotation mark on the new page or should I use closing ones too?
End of page two: "Blah," said the monkey, "blah blah blah ..."
Start of new page/spread: "... blah!"

I really hope I've made a little bit of sense!

Thank you

23/11/2020 05:30:09 pm

I think it could be confusing given that there's a page break. I'd take a look at how mainstream published children's picture books are handling it and mimic that style.

Eg I've just looked at Tabby McTat - it doesn't follow my guidance for commercial fiction but rather closes off each spoken block with quote marks. I think that makes sense to handle it differently.

23/11/2020 06:00:52 pm

Thank you so much for getting back to me so quickly, Louise.
I have had a mooch at a few picture books and they all seem to have different styles. I have proofread quite a few picture books now and I still have to research everything because the rule books fly out of the window with them! (Which adds to the fun, of course) :-)
I think I will point it out to the author and publisher but suggest that they check with the editor if there is a preferred style.

Thanks again for coming back to me on this.

Martyna Gibka

18/3/2023 11:34:39 am

Hi! Thank you very much for this! It has helped me a lot. I have a question. What should the writer do, if the quotation (dialogue) ends with a punctuation mark like ? ! or ... and then another punctuation mark (here a comma) is needed? Should it be like this: ?', !', and ...', ? How do you deal with three punctuation marks in a row?

11/4/2023 12:01:43 pm

I'd need to see a specific example, Martyna, but question marks and exclamation marks in dialogue usually replace the need for a comma, thus:

"How do I punctuate this sentence?" asked.

Nested quotes might mean you need three punctuation marks:

"How do I a cite a sentence from 'Editing Fiction at Sentence Level'?" Martyna asked, referencing Louise's fiction editing book.

8/5/2023 09:38:39 am

Thank you for repyling! The situation I have difficulty with is one where there is not a simple dialogue, but there are one person's utterances that illustrate a type of their behaviour. In order not to repeatedly include descriptions of situations of one type, after a few such descriptions there is a summary that this was often the case and in such situations he would say: [here follow his utterances enumerated, so, for example, 20 typical utterances he said in this type of situation]. So, on the one hand, these are the utterances of this person, and on the other hand, they appear in the text as a list rather than dialogue. In such a case, in addition to the punctuation marks that are necessary with dialogue, do you add commas separating these utterances? E.g. ‘You don’t need me, you have another one.’ ‘I see you don’t love me.’ ‘Tell me the truth, you’re with another man now?’ ‘You’re not at home?’ ‘Where is the woman you used to be?’ ‘It’s a shame.’ ‘I thought we’d get married and live together, I’d take care of you, and we’d have a son, but, well, that’s the way it is.’ ‘You have another man?’ ‘Right, I understand.’ ‘I’m a naive and stupid man.’ ‘I wish you all the best.’...

8/5/2023 05:44:05 pm

Here's a blog post that addresses your second question, Martyna:

https://www.louiseharnbyproofreader.com/blog/how-to-use-dialogue-snippets-as-a-narrative-tool

Hope that helps.