Dialogue Tags and Action In Between

[Phil the Drill]

This is a question I've long wondered about. I know it's pretty basic, but I want to make sure I get a general consensus of what is right.

So first dialogue tags. Here are two examples:

1. "The dragon is coming," Sir Amory said.

2. "The dragon is coming." Sir Amory said.

Number 1 is right and Number 2 is wrong.

Now what about these examples?

1. "The dragon is coming." Sir Amory readied his spear. "We need to prepare."

2. "The dragon is coming," Sir Amory readied his spear. "We need to prepare."

3. Sir Amory readied his spear. "The dragon is coming."

Number 1 and 3 are right, correct?

If you are using action, the sentence inside the quotation should end with a period and not a comma. So I just want to confirm that this is right. This is the way I do it anyway. I hope that it's right!

Thanks!

[Steerpike]

Yes, I believe you are correct.

[Devor]

Now what about these examples?

1. "The dragon is coming." Sir Amory readied his spear. "We need to prepare."

2. "The dragon is coming," Sir Amory readied his spear. "We need to prepare."

3. Sir Amory readied his spear. "The dragon is coming."

Number 1 and 3 are right, correct?

When you're using action instead of tags, I'm under the impression it has more to do with the quote itself and whether it reflects the complete sentence or not. But I don't know, so I hope someone corrects me if I'm wrong.

But for instance:

"The dragon is coming." Sir Amory readied his spear. "We need to prepare."

"The dragon is coming," Sir Amory readied his spear, "so we need to prepare."

I believe these are both correct. Is that right?

[ShortHair]

"The dragon is coming." Sir Amory readied his spear. "We need to prepare."

"The dragon is coming," Sir Amory readied his spear, "so we need to prepare."

I believe these are both correct. Is that right?

The first one is right. The second one is not. The speech is part of the sentence, and it needs a verb to indicate that someone said it. This would be right:

"The dragon is coming," Sir Amory said and readied his spear. "We need to prepare."

On another level, there are various opinions about whether the first example is sufficiently clear. Mentioning a character in a paragraph, for some people, is enough to implicitly associate the speech in that paragraph with that character. That works for me, but others insist that you should explicitly attribute the speech to the character.

[Devor]

"The dragon is coming," Sir Amory said and readied his spear. "We need to prepare."

So when is it right to use two commas? And what do you do if your tag is clearly interrupting a sentence? - say, one that's long and needs to be tagged before it's finished.

[BWFoster78]

So when is it right to use two commas? And what do you do if your tag is clearly interrupting a sentence? - say, one that's long and needs to be tagged before it's finished.

The period indicates the end of a complete thought:

"This is a full sentence," BWFoster78 said.

The reason you use two commas, if I correctly understood the questions, is if you put the speech tag within the full thought:

"Because I put the speech tag here," BWFoster78 said, "I need to use a comma after 'said'."

Note that in the previous sentence, the first clause is not independent, so you don't use a period after said.

Did that clarify things?

[BWFoster78]

Now what about these examples?

1. "The dragon is coming." Sir Amory readied his spear. "We need to prepare."

2. "The dragon is coming," Sir Amory readied his spear. "We need to prepare."

3. Sir Amory readied his spear. "The dragon is coming."

Number 1 and 3 are right, correct?

If you are using action, the sentence inside the quotation should end with a period and not a comma. So I just want to confirm that this is right. This is the way I do it anyway. I hope that it's right!

Absolutely correct. You got it!

[Phil the Drill]

Yeah, I guess I was under the impression that you only use two commas like this:

"The dragon is coming," Sir Amory said, "right there over the mountain."

Like if you are interrupting dialogue with a tag. So I'm thinking the comma is only used when a tag is present and not when it's only an action.

Ninja'd: BWFoster answered it!

[BWFoster78]

Not to hijack the thread, but I'd like to make a point about this subject. I see the following a lot when writers try to use actions in place of speech tags:

BWFoster78 wrote a lot of stuff. "Did you like any of it?" The denizens of Mythic Scribes presented a mixed bag of answers.

This is incorrect. Since you're using the action that BWFoster78 performed to denote who's speaking, you cannot have someone else act in the same paragraph. In the example, the sentence beginning with "The denizens" should be moved to a new paragraph.

Hope this helps someone somewhere.

[Devor]

Note that in the previous sentence, the first clause is not independent, so you don't use a period after said.

Did that clarify things?

That's mostly what I thought, but it is okay to use an action in such an instance instead of a speech tag?