currently working on my first story and I've realised I've used two different ways of the characters talking.
direct quotes. sally said "blah blah blah.".
and this way. sally spoke her blahdy blah blag at tommy,
not sure I can use both but sometimes one feels right sometimes the other.
Thoughts?
I'd have to see an example of both, but I certainly use first. I could use:
Sally said, "The most interesting things about the aardvark are [... paragraph elided ...]."
vs
Sally told us several interesting facts about aardvarks.
Which, for me, depends on whether either the aardvark facts or the conversation as a whole is worth going into detail over. If not, skimming saves words, and - while my story is very, very long - I am conscious of trying to restrain it from going off on too many pointless excursions.
That may not be what you're saying, though, but I can't tell from the example.
To start with, .". is the wrong way to end dialog. Only one punctuation mark and it goes within the quote (i.e. blah." or blah?")
Your first method is dialog and the second is narrative. Using both in a story s okay. I agree with Gray Wolf - if it is important to the story to reflect the detailed conversation between two or more people, use dialog. If you just want to let your reader know that someone made a statement or asked a question, use narrative. Whichever seems appropriate to you at the time.
thanks for answering that question for me.
I know I could of worded it better but I was rushing out the door to work.
I feel better now about having both types in the story.
quoted text and narrative text.
quoted text and narrative text.
Internal thoughts can also be in the narrative if the story is written in 1st-person or a close 3rd-limited (not omniscient).
Internal thought: Joe searched all over the house and then scratched his head. Where is the money? he thought.
Narrative thought: Joe searched all over the house and then scratched his head. Where was the money?
Because Joe is the POV character, the reader knows he's thinking where is the money even though it's written as part of the narrative. Notice when it's internal thought, it's in present tense. But when it's in the narrative, and the story is written in past tense, it's in past tense.
