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There are three rules for conversation: 1) Indicate through some mark of punctuation that someone is speaking aloud. This can be double quotes " , single quotes ' , dashes of varying lengths — ,...
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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/48265 License name: CC BY-SA 4.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
#3: Attribution notice added
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/48265 License name: CC BY-SA 4.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
#2: Initial revision
There are three rules for conversation: **1) Indicate through some mark of punctuation that someone is speaking aloud.** This can be double quotes " , single quotes ' , dashes of varying lengths — , guillemets « , or whatever else typographic convention is in your area. **2) Make it clear who is speaking.** This is usually through some kind of dialogue tag _(he said, she shouted, they whispered)_. You can also distinguish characters through vocabulary, grammar, diction, foreign language, accent, etc. Not every utterance necessarily needs a tag, but it should be easily and absolutely clear who is speaking any given line. If two people are talking and I have to count lines of dialogue to determine the speaker, you need more dialogue tags, variation in speech, and/or stage business. **3) New speaker gets a new paragraph.** It doesn't matter how many people are talking or how often they interrupt each other. Each new person speaking starts a new paragraph. (There are _rare_ exceptions, but I wouldn't experiment with them until you have the basics down solid.)