-
Line breaks in dialogue – formatting help?
I’m trying to work out how to format certain portions of dialogue and wondering what the rules are, if any. The main thing I’m looking at is where to line break.
Consider this passage:
’I’m not a runt!’ cries Noggin, pushing himself up. ‘My growth spurt’s coming this season.’ But the bucks have lost interest. ‘Right, pa?’ He looks up at his father.
I feel like this could also work with a single line break, like so:’I’m not a runt!’ cries Noggin, pushing himself up. ‘My growth spurt’s coming this season.’
But the bucks have lost interest. ‘Right, pa?’ He looks up at his father.
Or even with two lines breaks, like this:
’I’m not a runt!’ cries Noggin, pushing himself up. ‘My growth spurt’s coming this season.’
But the bucks have lost interest.
‘Right, pa?’ He looks up at his father.
<b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; color: var(–bb-body-text-color);”>How would you format this? Are each of these valid?
Thanks for taking the time to read and consider responding.
-
2 Replies
-
I use line breaks in dialogue to suggest a change of focus.
For instance, any time a different person speaks or acts.
If you want to switch the focus from Noggin to the bucks losing interest, a line break makes sense. If Noggin is the one noticing the loss of interest between his comments, then I don’t think a line break is necessary.
Without further context, that’s my suggestion.
-
This makes sense. I’ll try and have a look at some novels with this in mind—cheers Matthew
-
Log in to reply.