Want to know how to punctuate dialogue that’s interrupted midstream by an action beat? This post shows you one way of handling it in your fiction writing and editing practice.
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Example from published fiction
Kate Hamer, The Girl in the Red Coat, Faber & Faber, 2015 (Kindle edition, Chapter 6) When I wake up in the morning everything's wonderful. For a moment I can't understand why. Then I remember: Mum's said if the weather's good we can go to the storytelling festival and that's today. |
Example from published fiction
Harlan Coben, Win, Arrow, 2021 (Kindle edition, Chapter 1) His name is Teddy Lyons. He is one of the too-many assistant coaches on the South State bench. He is six foot eight and beefy, a big slab of aw-shucks farm boy. Big T—that's what he likes to be called—is thirty-three years old, and this is his fourth college coaching job. From what I understand, he is a decent tactician but excels at recruiting talent. |
Approach 2
Another option is to colour-code the text in a scene according to what type of beats are in play. This can help authors and editors evaluate whether one type of beat is overbearing, and where they might add in additional types of beat to disrupt that dominance. It's a powerful way of communicating the problem visually and quickly. |
Alert to injustice and discrimination in society, especially racism.
Aware of and actively attentive to important facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice).
They veered onto a side street off Storgatan.
Jorge's phone rang. Paola: "It's me. Que haces, hermano?" Jorge thought: Should I tell her the truth? "I'm in Södertälje." "At a bakery?" Paola: J-boy loved her. Still, he couldn't take it. He said, "Yeah, yeah, ‘course I'm at a bakery. But we gotta talk later—I got my hands full of muffins here." They hung up. |
Online editing training course
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Classification in UK
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VAT must be charged to UK customers?
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EXAMPLE 1
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Digital service
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Yes
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EXAMPLE 2
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Not a digital service
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No
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EXAMPLE 3
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Probably not a digital service
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Probably no
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EXAMPLE 4
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Possibly not a digital service
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Possibly no
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EXAMPLE 5
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Nebulous
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Nebulous
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Parentheses
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Tell me about parentheses (round brackets) and how they work.
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Commas
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Tell me about parentheses, round brackets, and how they work.
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Spaced en dashes
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Tell me about parentheses – round brackets – and how they work.
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Closed-up em dashes
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Tell me about parentheses—round brackets—and how they work.
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