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the end. Open the following paragraph with speech marks and end the dialog with them. The following example isn't perfect by any means but it gets the point across:

"The King will do what he desires," said Marcus. (same person speaking) "He cares not for what the people want.

"Eventually, this will lead to his downfall."

So, we have Marcus speaking in the first paragraph for two sentences. Then he continues in the second paragraph. However, the rule can differ if the first paragraph is changed. It's better explained by showing an example:

"The King will do what he desires," said Marcus. "He cares not for what the people want," he paused.

"Eventually, this will lead to his downfall," he continued.

While the example isn't perfect again in the paragraph structure, it does illustrate how to handle multiple paragraphs for the same speaker without someone else interrupting. Essentially, if a person speaks for more than one paragraph, but the first one doesn't end with dialog, then there is no need to leave the closing speech marks off.

Another matter to consider is when someone pauses mid-flow or when they're interrupted. Each has a different punctuation rule. If someone pauses and continues, then ellipses is used to indicate the pause. If someone interrupts, then hyphens are used. An example:

"Hmm. . . I wonder if Johnny will-"

"Johnny will what? Help us?" interrupted Gabriel. "Don't make me laugh."

Okay, so after hmm, the character paused. Then he continued only to have Gabriel cut him off after will. With regards to the hyphen, two are generally used. Sometimes a word processor will join them up and other times it won't. The elipses should have the spaces between each period. Sometimes just inserting the three periods will be enough to make the processor automatically insert spaces between them.

These are the essentials with regards to dialog punctuation. What must be stressed is that these rules don't need to be followed rigidly as with the vast majority of writing and so, they can be broken for effect and style reasons. It is especially effective to break the dialog punctuation rules in the first person to represent a point of view character better. But, a writer should know what the rules are before breaking them as with any general grammatical rules and other writing tips that are at times classified as gospel. When the rules are broken, it should generally seem as though the writer knows what they are doing and it needs to work. The last thing a writer wants is for it to appear that they don't know how to write, so any rule breaking mustn't seem random or due to a lack of understanding regarding the written language. As with anything, grammar is there to help people write better, but once understood, it can be used as a tool and be deconstructed.

Also, it is worth nothing that the actual dialog itself needn't follow specific grammar rules. People often don't think about it when speaking and it is important to portray dialog realistically so that the characters seem real.

Learn more about this author, Dan Cartwright.
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