I'm used to formatting that uses double-spaced paragraphs and quotations for dialogue.
"It's time for us to go." She said. The day was nearing the end, and it was getting harder and harder to see.
John shook his head. "No, let's stay a while longer, we must find something here!" he replied, and proceeded to rummage through the room.
I'm used to formatting that uses indented paragraphs and em-dashes for diogue.
¬¬ — It's time for us to go. — She said. The day was nearing the end, and it was getting harder and harder to see.
¬¬ John shook his head. — No, let's stay a while longer, we must find something here! — He replied, and proceeded to rummage through the room.
But for the first time ever, today, I was met with indented paragraphs with single quotes for dialogue.
¬¬ 'It's time for us to go.' She said. The day was nearing the end, and it was getting harder and harder to see.
¬¬ John shook his head. 'No, let's stay a while longer, we must find something here!' he replied, and proceeded to rummage through the room.
And it's tripping me up immensely.
That made me wonder: what are your preferences when or comes to formatting? What's the worst-formatted book you've read? We talk a lot about the contents of the things we read, but I don't see much discussion about the presentation.
by Atulin
1 Comment
I don’t often read books that use double spaces between paragraphs instead of indents. The standard in America would be indents and double quotes. Standard in UK is indents and single quotes. Emdashes are more of a Spanish-language thing afaik but some English translations might preserve them. (I’ve also read a book that only used a single emdash at the start of lines of dialogue with nothing at the end). There are a lot of books that eschew the marks completely.
Honestly while they all have theoretically different effects I don’t think I’ve ever been particularly distracted by a dialogue formatting choice.