If you've been wondering how to format interrupted dialogue in your manuscript, here's a quick answer.

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Video Transcript: Interrupted Dialogue

Hello, this is Mary Kole with Good Story Company. I have a very short video to put to bed some controversy about how to write interrupted dialogue.

Now, this is something you'll find yourself wanting to use but how do we format this puppy? It's basically like,
"Hmm, this chowder is de—"
"Ugh! I hate chowder. Why did we go with chowder?"
"I don't know."

So basically, one character is saying something, the other character interrupts. I see a lot of variations of this in manuscripts and I want to put the debate to bed. I don't know how hot the debate is. Maybe it's just in my head that it's a debate but, ideally, you will want to write the first line of dialogue, "Oh, this chowder is deli—," and if you cut us off in the middle of a word, make sure that readers can put together what that word was supposed to be. So, if we just say "d" it could be delicious, it could be delectable, it could be disgusting. So I would give a little bit more of a hint if you're gonna cut a word off and then an em dash and then your closing quotes and nothing else on that line.

This is where a lot of people get stuck. They say "Oh, that was deli—" then the em dash and the closing quote, and said, "Great." And then "She said but was interrupted" and then the next line of dialogue. Ideally, if you are writing interrupted dialogue, the word that is interrupted, that em dash, and those closing quotes are gonna be the last things that appear on that line. This is where I get my hackles up because if there's anything also on that line before the line of dialogue that interrupted it, then it's not a true interruption. You are not getting sort of the effect of da-da, da, and then the interruption, right. Then, you get to the line that interrupted it. "No. This is disgusting," and then, so we get the effect of the interruption. That em dash is what signals the interruption in dialogue formatting. Nowhere do you need to say Cathy interrupted, right, or they were interrupted by, or whatever, Cathy rudely interjected for a number of reasons. Please don't do the latter.

So, we get line, em dash, closing quotes, next line, opening quotes, whatever the interrupting phrase is, and nowhere do you have to say anybody interrupted because the formatting does it for you. So clean. So crisp. So delicious. Mwah.

This has been Mary Kole with a pointer on interrupting dialogue from the Good Story Company. Here is to a good story.

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