Capitalization after interrupted dialogue
I'm confused about proper punctuation, spacing, and capitalization when a character is speaking and is interrupted by actions without continuing dialogue.
"Maybe we could—" My phone rang.
"Maybe we could—" The dog started barking.
"Maybe we could—" He raised his hand to silence me.
"Maybe we could—" Was that a scream?
Was it correct to capitalize My, The, He and Was?
Also, when another person is speaking and is interrupted.
"This is one of the best—" She was interrupted by Danny.
"This is one of the best—" She didn't finish.
"This is one of the best—" Started Jim.
Is it correct to capitalize She and Started?
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/25517. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
2 answers
As a general rule, I tend to use dashes where the character is dramatically interrupted where as ellipses are used when it's a subtler interruption.
I.E.
Tony:"But at least Thanos doesn't know where the final-"
Steve: "OH CRAP!"
vs.
Tony:"But at least Thanos doesn't know where the final..."
Steve: "Oh Crap."
In the former, Steve has an immediate and very sudden realization that something has gone terribly wrong. In the later, it's a softer realization.
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/44484. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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It has nothing to do with who spoke or who interrupted. It only has to do with what is a sentence. Speech tags are part of the same sentence as the dialog the report. Separate actions occurring after the speech are separate sentences. Only the last of your examples is a speech tag, though an awkward one. The rest are separate sentences.
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