eg:

"Hi Tom."
"Hi Sarah."
"You know yesterday, when you said, now what was it: 'I'd never go out with you in a million years?'? Well, did you really mean it?"

How would you present the

'I'd never go out with you in a million years?'?

ie Tom's speech inside of Sarah's speech, if you see what i mean.

Italics?
In more speechmarks?
Or would you try and avoid this where poss and use reported speech, eg

"You know yesterday, when you said that you'd never go out with me in a million years? Well, did you really mean it?"

Any comments appreciated.

Casey

I'd probably say:

'You know yesterday, when you said, now what was it, 'I'd never go out with you in a million years'? Well, did you really mean it?'

I wouldn't go out of my way to avoid reported sppech if that's how the character would express themselves.

I'm sure a copy editor would iron out all these finicky things.

You need to decide on your speech marks and stick to them. In the UK it's more usual to use single quotes for speech and double quotes for quoted speech (the other way around in the US). Also, your question mark is punctuating Sarah's dialogue, not the quote, so it comes outside the quotes, ie.

'You know yesterday, when you said, now what was it: "I'd never go out with you in a million years"? Well, did you really mean it?'

And if you wanted to break it up, with Tom answering 'Yes.', you'd need to put the question mark between the quotes. ie

'You know yesterday, when you said, now what was it: "I'd never go out with you in a million years"?'
'Yes.'
'Well, did you really mean it?'


Colin M.

Colin's right as I understand it.

Nik.

Thanks, guys.

Hmm, that's interesting Colin, i've always wondered about the double speech marks thing. I wonder if i can be bothered to change them all on my rewrite, yikes. Like Sammy says, though,a copy editor would prob, iron out any mistakes i make.

Thanks again.

Casey

Although a copy ed would, I think I would want to make the mss as good as possible. Getting the writery bits right (such as punctuation) is a writer's job.

To make it easier you could push cntrl F and then select replace and put the ' and the " in the relevant boxes, and hey presto - job done.

Nik.

Got to agree with Nik - copy editors are there to spot the occasional error or inconsistency, not reformat the whole thing. If you have used double quotes (") then find and replace will take a second to switch them all to singles (', but you might want to check them through, as "intelligent" quotes sometimes get it wrong.

You really want the final script to be as high a standard as you can possibly make it. Copy editors are great for household name authors and celebs, but us lot have to get it near perfect for them to take us seriously.

To make it easier you could push cntrl F

- see, if you'd kept that Mac you'd have to learn a whole new shortcut.

Ha yes. This is true!

Yes, i suppose you're right, and normally i'm a bit anal about punctuation,it was just the thought of changing all those " to '...but now i know a shortcut...!

Thanks again.

Casey

Casey, I think either of your suggested versions are fine (apart from Colin's comment about the question mark) and are as I would write it.

I'm interested in the discussion about whether to use single or double quotes. I did read recently that (as you say) it's doubles in the US and singles in the UK, but I'm puzzled by this, because as a child I was definitely taught to use doubles always for speech.

Like you, Casey, I would use singles to differentiate from doubles if quoting within quotes.

Why are kids taught to use doubles if the publishing industry uses singles? And does the publishing industry always use singles (I feel like picking up loads of books, now, to check)?

Would an agent or publisher really be put off by something so trivial?

Deb

<Added>

I meant that I agreed with Colin about the question mark - sorry if that wasn't clear. but I notice you put the qm in two places, Case, so I'm guessing it was a typo.

The quick answer is probably not, because these things can be corrected or altered fairly easily - unlike bad punctuation. So, as long as the general punctuation is correct, it won't really have an impact. Consistency is the important thing. So long as the editor knows that you know what you're doing, and you are making dialogue clear, then use the method you prefer. Some people would rather see double quotes, and others - Roddy Doyle for example - don't use either; he uses a hyphen, which is a pain at times because he starts speech with a hyphen, but doesn't end it, so there is an element of guesswork here and there.

The important things are good punctuation and consistency.

Thanks. I totally agree about consistency (having been a sub on a mag it's something which matters to me).

I was actually put off reading Roddy Doyle because of his odd speech punctuation. I don't like it at all!

Deb

There are lots of things children are taught which are wrong. They're still taught the old 66 99 for speech and quotation marks, to start every line of poetry with a capital etc. but I suppose that we're looking at it from a writer's point of view and not from one which is trying to instil the basics of literacy.

It is standard in the UK to use singles, and in the US doubles. It may be a bit of a ball ache but it really does help you in that it shows an agent that you know these things and makes your mss appear more professional.

And Macs Colin? Grr.

Nik.

Thanks Nik. I guess I need to go with the flow, then. Not too late for me.

Deb