In this post we’re going to get into the nitty-gritty of self-editing, on the level of punctuation and typographical emphasis.
You may be wondering, Why worry about this? Isn’t this the job of my copyeditor?
Yes, it is. However, if you have a budget for your book, and you’ve found that developmental editing has cut deeply into that budget, you may be interested in this month’s topic.
When a copyeditor looks at a sample of your manuscript and sees that most of the dialogue is punctuated correctly and the italics are formatted consistently, they’ll be more likely to quote you a price using something closer to their base rate.
On the other hand, if a copyeditor sees a mess of boldface, all caps, italics, and misplaced punctuation, they may quote you a higher price than usual. The mess could take many extra hours to sort out, especially in a full-length manuscript.
The conventions I’ll be sharing in this blog post are based on The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th ed., which is the style guide that most US book publishers use. I also use The Magic of Fiction by fiction editor Beth Hill and Point of View by author and editor Sandra Gerth.
Because I edit mostly American English (AmE), that’s where I’ll be keeping the focus today. Be aware that British English (BrE) conventions can be slightly different.
Quotation marks and other punctuation
Periods. Periods go inside the closing quotation mark.
“She said that she doesn’t like Benny.”
Exclamation and question marks. When the question is part of the dialogue, the question mark goes inside the closing quotation mark.
“She said that?”
When a character is quoting someone else in their dialogue, and the quote is a question, the question mark goes inside the single quotation mark.*
“Yes. She actually said to me, ‘Why should I care about your dog?’”
When the exclamation is part of the dialogue, the exclamation mark goes inside the closing quotation mark.
“I can’t believe it!”
When a character is quoting someone else in their dialogue, and the quote is an exclamation, the exclamation mark goes inside the single quotation mark.*
“Believe it. Then she said, ‘Get the dog out of my house!’”
When a character is quoting someone else in their dialogue but the quote itself is not part of the character’s question or exclamation, the question or exclamation mark goes after the single quotation mark for the quote and before the closing quotation mark for the dialogue.
“She said, ‘Get the dog out of my house’?”
*Use single quotation marks (‘ ’), not double (“ ”), when a character quotes someone else within their own dialogue.
Commas. Commas go inside the quotation marks of dialogue that comes before a dialogue tag.
“That’s exactly what she said to me,” Jake replied, shaking his head.
A comma immediately follows a dialogue tag coming before the dialogue. The comma does not go inside the quotation marks.
Leo rolled his eyes and replied, “Unbelievable.”
Dashes. A dash used in dialogue goes inside the quotation marks,
Sara looked up at Jake. “Well, you could stay wi—”
unless dashes are separating an action beat inserted within a line of dialogue.
“I guess I’m looking for my own place now”—Jake’s face scrunched up—“which I don’t have time for.”
Ellipses. There is no space between an ellipsis dot and quotation marks.
“Jake,” Sara began again, “what if . . .”
Semicolons. Semicolons are not often used in dialogue, but they might still be placed next to quotation marks for other reasons. Semicolons go outside quotation marks.
She told me she would be “early”; I knew that meant she would be on time.
Colons. Similar to semicolons, you won’t often see a colon next to a quotation mark used for dialogue. Colons go outside quotation marks.
I like three things about the song “Eight Days a Week”: it’s catchy, it’s creative, and it’s romantic.
Apostrophes and other punctuation
Apostrophes come before commas, dashes, semicolons, colons, and any end punctuation. They belong to the word they’re modifying.
That kind of behavior would send me runnin’!
The fault is the players’.
When quotation marks are involved, they are outside as always.
“No,” she said. “The fault is the players’.”
He shook his head, laughing. “That kind of behavior would send me runnin’!”
Exclamation and question marks
In most genres, it goes against convention to use more than one question mark or exclamation mark at the end of a sentence. Ideally, you’d use action beats to show the intensity of your character’s words, but you could also use italics.
Kel’s jaw dropped. “What?”
or even
“What?”
is preferrable to
“What???”
Using question marks and exclamation marks in multiples is more common in light novels, middle-grade literature, and picture books.
And unless you’re writing one of the above genres, you’ll want to watch your use of even single exclamation marks. Exclamation mark overuse annoys many readers. Use action beats and powerful words to show a character’s strong emotions. That way when you do use an exclamation mark, it will have more of an effect.
The interrobang (?!). Here’s where more traditionally minded editors/publishers and I part ways. I think the interrobang can be very effective when it’s used rarely and thoughtfully. Sadly, most in publishing disagree with me. So, again, unless you’re writing children’s literature or light novels—or you’re okay with deliberately breaking a rule here and there—you’ll want to avoid the question mark-exclamation mark combo.
Adding emphasis
Underlining. Similar to two spaces following a period, underlining is no longer necessary in today’s world and should not be used in your fiction writing.
Boldface. Using boldface in fiction isn’t necessary.
All caps. Writing a whole word in capital letters is rarely used in mainstream fiction. It’s more common in children’s fiction. You may also see it in light novels.
Italics. A common way to add emphasis in mainstream fiction writing is to italicize a word. However, just like exclamation marks, italics should be kept to a minimum. If you notice that you’re italicizing multiple words on every page just for emphasis, you may want to reconsider. The more italics on a page, the quicker your reader’s eyes and patience wear out.
Try removing all the italics, reading the page aloud, and then re-italicizing only the words you think truly need it.
Italics in relation to punctuation. Only the emphasized word itself should be in italics. Surrounding punctuation (except apostrophes) should be in roman (regular) type.
“What if they’re after you?”
If the word in a one-word sentence is italicized, the punctuation and the quotation marks are also italicized.
“Please.”
Using italics for internal monologue
Internal monologue is your point-of-view character’s thoughts. It’s not dialogue, so don’t use quotation marks for internal monologue unless you want to confuse your readers.
I could write an entire blog post about internal monologue and the various ways it can be written depending on point of view and narrative distance. For the sake of this post, I’m going to stick to the basics.
If you’re writing in third person limited POV, you’ll probably be italicizing your POV character’s direct thoughts. In this case, the whole sentence is italicized, including the end punctuation.
Jake closed his eyes to shut out the world’s messiness. How am I ever going to find the time to search for a new apartment?
Thought tags are rarely needed, but if you do use one, italicize only the actual thought. Commas within the thought are in italics. The comma preceding or following the thought tag should be in roman type.
Man, I really hope I can pull this off, he thought.
He thought, Man, I really hope I can pull this off.
Remember this!
The most important thing is consistency. Readers, agents, and editors can often overlook a style that is somewhat unconventional, but when your style is inconsistent, reading your manuscript might feel unbearable. Glaring errors and inconsistencies—not smaller, consistent breaks from convention—are usually what make the reader want to throw the book (or e-reader) across the room.
I hope this information has given you some help. These basics should take you a long way in the finer aspects of self-editing. The super-detailed stuff you can leave for your copyeditor, formatter, and proofreader.
