RULES:
- New speaker, new paragraph. Every time someone speaks, give its own paragraph. Yes, even if it's only one word, new paragraph.
- Each paragraph is indented. The only exception for this is if it's the start of a chapter or after a scene break, where the first line is never indented, including with dialogue.
- Punctuation for what's said goes inside the quotation marks. Any time the punctuation is a part of the person speaking, they go inside the quotes so the reader knows how the dialogue is said.
- Long speeches with several paragraphs don't have end quotations. You'll see more on this below, but overall, if one character is speaking for so long they have separate paragraphs, the quotation marks on the end are removed, but you start the next paragraph with them.
- Use single quotes if the person speaking is quoting someone else. If you have a character who says, "Man, don't you love it when girls say, 'I'm fine'?", the single quotes indicate what someone else says.
- Skip the small talk and focus on important information only. Unless that small talk is relevant for character development, skip it and get to the point, this isn't real life and will actually feel more fake if you have too much. For more advanced dialogue tips: Great Dialogue