Action Beats

[sciwriterPark]

Hi, what is the best ways to punctuate action beats? Any suggestion other than simple periods? Thank you.

 

[Christine Wheelwright]

Hi, what is the best ways to punctuate action beats? Any suggestion other than simple periods? Thank you.

Can you give us an example?

 

[sciwriterPark]

example of normal dialogue.
Jim said, "That looks really cool."

action beat
“That looks really cool.” Jim pushed the toy train on the carpeted floor.

I was just wondering what other function choices I have.
Thanks.

 

[Christine Wheelwright]

"That looks really cool." said Jim, pushing the toy train on the carpeted floor.

___

Jim pushed the toy train on the carpeted floor.

"That looks really cool." he said.

____

Pushing the toy train on the carpeted floor, Jim remarked that it looked really cool.

____

Jim pushed the toy train on the carpeted floor and said, "That looks really cool."

 

[tinkerdan]

Dialogue beats are just a simple way to break up tedious and long dialogue between characters and to help identify which character is speaking by use of actions to both identify the speaker and to convey something about the character..
Using punctuation to accentuate is not the best way to craft the sentences.
Your sentence itself--the writing--should convey mood-tempo-and other expressive elements well enough to not necessitate expressive punctuation.

The short answer would be periods where appropriate and question marks when needed.

However the punctuation between the dialogue and the sentence offering the beat could include a comma between the two though in most cases you would want use periods and question marks unless you were including a said within the action beat.

 

[Wayne Mack]

An action beat is a stand alone sentence and should be punctuated as such (as well as anything preceding or following it). A dialog tag, however is an injected phrase, and the guidance gets a little weird depending upon whether the dialog is a normal statement versus a question or exclamation.

As the action beat refers to the speaking character, I find that it reads best if it is in the same paragraph as the dialog. I also find that it is better to place the beat at the start (most often) or within a string of dialog. Ending with dialog, instead of with descriptive text, seems to better maintain a back and forth flow of conversation.

 

[sciwriterPark]

thank you

 

[Wayne Mack]

Dialogue beats are just a simple way to break up tedious and long dialogue between characters and to help identify which character is speaking by use of actions to both identify the speaker and to convey something about the character..
Using punctuation to accentuate is not the best way to craft the sentences.
Your sentence itself--the writing--should convey mood-tempo-and other expressive elements well enough to not necessitate expressive punctuation.

The short answer would be periods where appropriate and question marks when needed.

However the punctuation between the dialogue and the sentence offering the beat could include a comma between the two though in most cases you would want use periods and question marks unless you were including a said within the action beat.

A couple of other uses for action beats are, to signal a pause in the conversation or to provide a break when a speaker switches topics.

 

[Christine Wheelwright]

An action beat is a stand alone sentence and should be punctuated as such (as well as anything preceding or following it). A dialog tag, however is an injected phrase, and the guidance gets a little weird depending upon whether the dialog is a normal statement versus a question or exclamation.

As the action beat refers to the speaking character, I find that it reads best if it is in the same paragraph as the dialog. I also find that it is better to place the beat at the start (most often) or within a string of dialog. Ending with dialog, instead of with descriptive text, seems to better maintain a back and forth flow of conversation.

Yes, agree the beat is best before the dialog. So....

“That looks really cool.” Jim pushed the toy train on the carpeted floor.
vs
Jim pushed the toy train on the carpeted floor. "That looks really cool."

The second makes it clearer that the act of pushing the train on the carpeted floor contributes to the opinion that it looks really cool.

By the way, this may all seem a bit trivial, but it really makes a difference to how a story reads.