Sounds and noises people make in dialogue...

I've found the advice in this thread very helpful. It's one of those things I need to work on, and I'll be zero-ing in it on during rewrites next month

One question I have about dialogue is should I always put each speaker's dialogue on a separate line, or is it okay to have them in the same paragraph, particularly if I'm omitting dialogue tags? Or would that be too confusing?

Robin fluffed her hair. "I thought we were supposed to be there at 7:00, or did they change the time?" "The reservations were changed to 6:30." "I'd better hurry and dress then."

-or-

Robin fluffed her hair. "I thought we were supposed to be there at 7:00, or did they change the time?"

"The reservations were changed to 6:30."

"I'd better hurry and dress then."

As a near-absolute rule, new speakers mean new paragraphs.

Exceptions are made sometimes when dialogue is secondary, like when there's a few lines of dialogue in a large paragraph that consists largely of non-dialogue stuff, for example. Or when some sort of unconventional format is desired. Those exceptions pretty much mandate tags, though.

Multiple tagless speakers' dialogue in one paragraph, as in that example, is about as confusing as it gets. That one really needs paragraph breaks.

edit: N.B., I typed my post before you edited in the version with paragraph breaks.

TribalCat said:

Robin fluffed her hair. "I thought we were supposed to be there at 7:00, or did they change the time?"

"The reservations were changed to 6:30."

"I'd better hurry and dress then."

Click to expand...

This one in this instance. There are times when you can have two speakers in one dialogue, but you'd have to show who is in command of the dialogue.

Thanks for the clarification

This thread has been helpful. My dialogue isn't so much a problem, but I have a bad habit of having a lot of characters gasp, frown, raise their eyebrows, etc while in conversation. They must all look like clowns by the amount of facial expressions they make per scene. I see some edits in my future! Thanks, AW.

flarue said:

This thread has been helpful. My dialogue isn't so much a problem, but I have a bad habit of having a lot of characters gasp, frown, raise their eyebrows, etc while in conversation. They must all look like clowns by the amount of facial expressions they make per scene. I see some edits in my future! Thanks, AW.

Click to expand...

To clarify, some people actually do that - in fact, I do that. Though that doesn't invalidate your statement at all, because I have been referred to as a 'cartoon person' which probably isn't that far-off from clowns.

Remember folks. No matter how unrealistic or silly something might seem in writing, there is someone that unrealistic and silly in real life - people just don't believe in them.

This thread has been great. It's an issue I return to often - I particularly liked the tangent on telling vs showing and the unnecessary actions.