Which one is the correct dialogue punctuation format?
I am writing my first novel and this the very first confusion I would like to clarify. As I am not a native English speaker, I find it very hard to understand the punctuation scheme in direct speeches.
Which one of the following is correct? Please explain why the other one is wrong.
“I did what I needed to do.” He lowered his head to look at my face.
“You should've waited for me,” she replied.
or
“I did what I needed to do,” he lowered his head to look at my face.
“You should've waited for me,” she replied.
Also, how well does this punctuation rules apply for action tags like - he shrugged, he smile, he scoffed and similar tags.
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1 answer
The difference is that the first sentence doesn't have a tag. It's a line of dialogue followed by a complete sentence.
The second sentence is dialogue followed by a dialogue tag.
Your first set of examples is punctuated correctly — when you use a tag, the dialogue ends in a comma, and the tag starts with a lowercase letter. This also applies to action tags.
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