Dreyer's English - Benjamin Dreyer 2022

A few pointers on unfinished speech
The realities of fiction
The stuff in the front

✵If one of your characters is speaking and is cut off in midsentence by the speech or action of another character, haul out a dash:

“I’m about to play Chopin’s Prelude in—”

Grace slammed the piano lid onto Horace’s fingers.

✵When a line of dialogue is interrupted by an action, note that the dashes are placed not within the dialogue but on either side of the interrupting action.

“I can’t possibly”—she set the jam pot down furiously—“eat such overtoasted toast.”

✵If one of your characters is speaking and drifts off dreamily in midsentence, indicate that not with a dash but with an ellipsis.

“It’s been such a spring for daffodils,” she crooned kittenishly.^*10 “I can’t recall the last time…” She drifted off dreamily in midsentence.

✵When characters self-interrupt and immediately resume speaking with a pronounced change in thought, I suggest the em dash—space—capital letter combo pack, thus:

“Our lesson for today is— No, we can’t have class outside today, it’s raining.”^*11

✵“Furthermore,” he noted, “if your characters are in the habit of nattering on for numerous uninterrupted paragraphs of dialogue, do remember that each paragraph of dialogue concludes without a closing quotation mark, until you get to the last one.

“Only then do you properly conclude the dialogue with a closing quotation mark.

“Like so.”