Hello all,

I'm a newbie here and just looking for a bit of advice.

I've written a novel aimed at teenagers, written in the first person. It's a little over 91000 words and I'm in the middle of editing the first re-write.

I'm also at the 20000 word mark of my new novel which is great fun as it has scenes set all around the world.

As far as I understand, and from what I've read from other novels, is that new paragraphs are indented apart from the first after each new chapter. A blank line is needed for a time change or scene change.

I think I'm right in saying that if a person speaks it is followed within the sentence, however, if another person speaks, then that is indented. Then when each different person speaks it's indented - so all talking is indented except for the first person to speak within a paragraph.
Is that right?

I really appreciate any help as it had to be 100% correct before any promotional work is done.

Many thanks for your time

Dan

Hi Dan, and welcome to WW

As far as I understand, and from what I've read from other novels, is that new paragraphs are indented apart from the first after each new chapter.

This is right, and you also don't indent the first paragraph after a double-line space, or an asterisk, say: anything that's indicating a larger break than a paragraph, but a smaller break than a chapter.

A blank line is needed for a time change or scene change.

Depends how you're writing the break in time or space. It's a useful device to mark a stop-and-start-again, but you'd be daft to leave a gap if you were writing something like this:

"I love you," Bob said as Ann waved him off at Glasgow Central bus station, wondering if she'd ever see him again. And two weeks later she was unpacking her sales materials in the Brisbane hotel, when he knocked on the door.

despite the fact that two weeks and half the globe have come between those two sentences.

I think I'm right in saying that if a person speaks it is followed within the sentence, however, if another person speaks, then that is indented. Then when each different person speaks it's indented - so all talking is indented except for the first person to speak within a paragraph.

Not sure I'm quite sure what you're asking, but the basic rules go like this:

You can mix up action and speeches: you don't have to start a new paragraph every time someone opens their mouth, and it's helpful to keep us clear on who's speaking without actual speech tags, if their speech and their actions stay together within the paragraph. But you must start a new paragraph when the speaker changes.

So, when a different person begins to speak, you start a new paragraph, with an indent in the normal way. But don't leave a line of dialogue on its own, with nothing to anchor it to a person. (Yes, I know it may be clear with a bit of detective work, but if your reader is reduced to detecting then they're not involved in the story) So make sure there's something to tell us who says it: usually a speech tag 'he said, 'she asked', he whispered', or an action (including someone thinking something). If you want to start the paragraph with that person doing something, and then speaking, that's fine. You don't need to start a new paragraph for the speech.

Emma

Hi Dan, your questions have already been answered by Emma, so I'll just say welcome to WW, I hope you enjoy your time with us. And good luck with your novel.

Ditto Manusha. Hi and welcome

Hi just adding my welcome