I STILL am not sure about the following and i've looked in varous novels but there seems no blanket rule.

Does every line of dialogue start a new line when a new character is speaking?

"Hello, Ron," i said. He turned around to look at me. "Hello, Casey."

Or should it be:

"Hello, Ron," i said. He turned around to look at me. "Hello, Casey."

I can't believe i'm still not sure about this.

x

I would say the latter is correct.
eg, from About A Boy:

Will laughed at this. 'Cynic' he said.

<Added>

However, the top one looks correct too, as it means it doesn't need the 'he said' tag after it.

I just get so confused about this and paragraphs when it comes to dialogue. Maybe it doesn't matter?

I mean, could you have the following as well, ie the dialogue starting even further into the paragraph>

"Hello, Ron," I said. He turned around to look at me, his eyes dull, his complexion sallow. His hands were shaking and the car keys fell from his hands. "Hello, Casey" he said. "I didn't think i'd see you again."

?

I was wondering about this recently because I did mainly the top format in my MS, as it didn't even occur to me to do anything else. My editor has now changed it to the second format - including some bits where the dialogue is quite far into the paragraph, so I guess that must be OK.

Yes,i have seen a lot of that, Caro, in recent books i have read. Hmm. Interesting. It does go against the grain though, doesn't it, to start a new speaker off well into a paragraph of prose. But then, a lot of the time it makes sense.

As far as I understand (and do) it, the only unbreakable rule is that you mustn't have two people's speeches in the same paragraph. So in fact both your examples are perfectly correct. However, to my mind the second reads more smoothly, and I think it's more standard to run on until you have a reason to break, if you see what I mean. Any what I think of as stage directions usually work best as close as possible to any speeches by the same person. And they often mean you don't need 'I said,' as well. A very instinctive call, I think, how many and where you want speech tags, and paragraph breaks.

"Hello, Ron," I said. He turned around to look at me. "Hello, Casey." Why had he still been looking back at the road? Had he seen something I hadn't. "Lovely to be here," he said, stepping over the threshold. "Shall I take your coat?" I closed the front door. "No, thanks. I'm a bit chilly." The sitting room, though, was warm, and we hadn't been sitting there for more than five minutes before he pulled his coat off.

Emma

But if the next line was Ron speaking again, would you start that on a new line, Emma, as the previous line was about them both ie 'WE hadn't been sitting there..'. ie it's not a paragraph just about him?

Hello, Ron," I said. He turned around to look at me. "Hello, Casey." Why had he still been looking back at the road? Had he seen something I hadn't. "Lovely to be here," he said, stepping over the threshold. "Shall I take your coat?" I closed the front door. "No, thanks. I'm a bit chilly." The sitting room, though, was warm, and we hadn't been sitting there for more than five minutes before he pulled his coat off. "So how have you been?"

You could do it like the above, but I think it looks a bit messy. I always start dialogue on a new line, unless the narrative is small, eg

"Shall I take your coat?" He winced as he lifted his arms. "Are you ok?" I asked, shocked at his appearance.

The 'winced' bit is short. If that went on for longer I'd start on a new line even if it were the same person talking - though you might have to put a 'he said', 'I said' attached to it.

Hope that helps.

Maybe it is all down to personal taste then?

Like i say, i have noticed lately dialogue starting half-way through longish paragraphs, in books that i am reading.

*sigh* - i know i'll be jumped on for saying this, but i wish there was some sort of rule

Well it's all very much fine tuning, but I put a break after 'a bit chilly', rather than running it on, because though it's connected in sense with 'the sitting room was warm', there's tacit but appreciable gap in time while they go in there and sit down and warm up. If what came after 'a bit chilly' was, say 'he didn't even undo his coat buttons', then I'd have run it on.

If that went on for longer I'd start on a new line even if it were the same person talking -

No, I must say I wouldn't, if it was basically all part of what I think linguisticians would call the same speech act. As a reader, I get confused if all the bits of what's fundamentally one speech get separated. Of course, if something else happens which in itself merits a paragraph break, then

*sigh* - i know i'll be jumped on for saying this, but i wish there was some sort of rule

I think the rule-which-isn't-a-rule is to try to understand the expressive effect - like the slightly greater separation of sense and time that a paragraph break implies - of the various possibilities. The reason there isn't a rule is because it's a subtler business than just 'if it's X you do Y', and the more variable-but-acceptable techniques there are, the greater the range of tools we have.

Rumer Godden's a great one for having more than one speaker in a paragraph, on occasions. Anyone remember Miss Happinness and Miss Flower?

Emma

I think dialogue is notorious for irritating agents when it's done wrong, isn't it? But i guess that's more about the punctuation.

Yes, I think that's mostly about the punctuation, because those are - almost entirely - rules which you can learn and get right, and it just looks stupid an unprofessional not to have done so. But paragraphing is much subtler and more mutable stuff.

Emma

I think with paragraphing it's all about flow for me (apart from, like Emma said, not having two people's lines muddled up). I just work on instinct with things like this - sometimes it's helpful to think about the scene in question and what the pace of it is like - if it's an angry exchange then shorter paras may be more appropriate - a more thoughtful or reflective scene might be better served by longer ones? and also things like - if you want to draw attention to a particular line, putting it in a new, short para after a longer one with some dialogue contained within it, because your eye will tend to snap to the new line.

Thinking about the way things look on the page can be a really useful tool with dialogue.

While we're on this - a quick query - I'm proofreading some stories for someone else - there is a narrator telling the story and then dialogue within the story - also a couple of lines of dialogue as intro to each story.

So when the narrator begins telling the story - 'Once upon a time - and then "XYFF!" said Fred - and I think - strictly - each para of narration should begin ' too -

But I think it looks way too mannered - I want to stick to '' throughout and quietly drop the ' at the start of each new para as once the story is underway I don't want to emphasise the narrator's voice too much.

Any thoughts? So much harder when it isn't your own choice to make...

Sarah

If the narrator only gets a 'he said' right at the beginning, and then it just flows on, all in his voice, I think I'd drop it the "s altogether, otherwise it's very fiddly to read - you keep thinking it's actually some dialogue in the story.

One thing I have seen is that few lines of introductory dialogue with conventional speech marks, then a double space, and then the main narrative starts, clearly in the narrator's voice, but without the speech marks. Wodehouse's Mulliner stories are like that, as I recall.

'Once upon a time,' said Fred, looking at his empty glass. Joe took the hint. 'Can I get you another one?' 'That would be delightful, thank you. Bitter, please. Now, where was I?' [double space] Yes, Once upon a time... Well, there was a princess, isn't there always?

Emma