Prism Book Group discussion

This time, we’ll talk about how to punctuate dialogue and actions, another of the most common mistakes made by authors.

“I’m really hungry.” She clutched her stomach.

Here we have two sentences. The statement, and the action following. Even though the action is related to the statement, it is not joined. Take a look:

“I’m really hungry,” she clutched her stomach.

This is what we call a run-on sentence. Two or more independent sentences joined together by a comma.

Can they stand apart? Absolutely, yes, and they should. She is not clutching the words, but her stomach. Here’s a few more examples:

“I’m so mad,” Sally slammed the door.

“This is not over,” Lacy walked away.



Corrected:

“I’m so mad.” Sally slammed the door.

“This is not over.” Lacy walked away.



Note: in neither case was a dialogue tag necessary, because as I mentioned in my last post, it’s much healthier for your manuscript to do away with them all together. Dialogue tags are crutch words. But just in case, at least write them correctly.

Write strong, and until next time...let’s make your manuscript shine!

Joan

Punctuating dialog is my bete noire - as anyone who has had the misfortune of editing me can attest!