Mistakes with typing up dialogue has always, ALWAYS, been one of my pet peeves when reading fiction. Sometimes, it's so bad that it makes me stop reading the story all together and go find another one, that is done correctly.

    1. When two or more people are talking, ALWAYS start a new paragraph when someone new is talking. This is the most common dialogue mistake I see, and the worst.

        Something like this really turns me away from reading the story:

            "So, what was that all about?" Xander asked on the way to Doc's home. "What was *what* all about?" Spike asked back. "You know...you and Buffy and Tara going into the back room together." Xander said, "Someone walked out looking mighty smug." "Like I'm going to tell you, Harris," Spike replied. "We aren't buddies or anything, so why bother?" "C'mon, Spike, how bad can it be?" Xander asked. "You two talked, so she must have talked you out of staking yourself, or going for a morning stroll, or she told you that she forgave you, or she told you something about the whole 'monster' thing, or-" "She kissed me," Spike replied.

        I really can't stand reading something like that. This is what it should look like:

            "So, what was that all about?" Xander asked on the way to Doc's home.

            "What was *what* all about?" Spike asked back.

            "You know...you and Buffy and Tara going into the back room together." Xander said, "Someone walked out looking mighty smug."

            "Like I'm going to tell you, Harris," Spike replied. "We aren't buddies or anything, so why bother?"

            "C'mon, Spike, how bad can it be?" Xander asked. "You two talked, so she must have talked you out of staking yourself, or going for a morning stroll, or she told you that she forgave you, or she told you something about the whole 'monster' thing, or-"

            "She kissed me," Spike replied.

Other short tips:

• Always use " " marks instead of ' ' marks.

• Capitalize the first work inside the quotation marks.

• When ending the quotes in a . or a , place the punctuation marks inside the closing "

• Do NOT skip a space in between the first set of quotation marks and the first word, like this: " So I ran."

• If a person is talking and they give the name of a place, you put the place in single quote marks only. EX: "Well, I think we're considering going to 'Red Lobster' tonight," Anne said.

These are just some of MY tips and thoughts that came to my head when writing up this essay. Did I miss anything? Want to add something? Let me know!

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