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Dialogue quotes are for things a character actually says. If your character says "hahaha" then fine. But I've never heard anyone do that. You might get a single "ha!" but that's an exclamation n...
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#3: Attribution notice added
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/45261 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
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# Dialogue quotes are for things a character actually says. If your character says "hahaha" then fine. But I've never heard anyone do that. You might get a single "ha!" but that's an exclamation not a laugh. Or someone might say "ha ha" (or even "ha ha ha") sarcastically. Again, not a laugh. If you want to tell your readers that your character laughed then, yeah, you need to just say so. If the laughing comes _during_ the dialogue, you can use a laughing tag. Stylistically, many people recommend against using tags that aren't your basic "said" or "asked" but you can get away with a few. > "It's...I can't even explain it," Griselda laughed. Or you can describe the action directly. > Griselda laughed. "That's...just wow." Using the phrase "hahaha" to indicate that someone is laughing is perfectly legitimate in texts, emails, and other informal settings. Don't use it in your writing.