Chatter

Have you ever seen a silent movie?

Have you ever watched a film which is in a language that you don't understand?

We're never really happy with a film unless we can hear what the characters are saying to each other. The same is true of a story. We can't really get to know the characters unless we "hear" them speak. More importantly, when they do speak, they need to say something worth listening to.

The problem with putting speech into a story is that it can be hard work. You have to remember where all the punctuation marks go. Usually, you're so busy concentrating on making the characters talk that you make a mess of the speech marks.

Let's see if we can bring a couple of characters to life.

Sarah and Alan are walking through the countryside when they realise that they are lost. To start with I'll concentrate only on the actual words that they speak.

Sarah: This is hopeless. Give me the map.
Alan: Here you are but I bet you won't do any better than I have.
Sarah: You never know. I might be able to see exactly where we are.
Alan: You? I bet you don't even know which way to hold it.

Step 1

Putting in the speech marks is easy. We put at the beginning of each speech and at the end. It then looks like this:

This is hopeless. Give me the map.
Here you are but I bet you won't do any better than I have.
You never know. I might be able to see exactly where we are.
You? I bet you don't even know which way to hold it.

There's just one problem: we don't know who said what.

Step 2

The simplest method is to add said Alan or Sarah said. That would give us:

This is hopeless. Give me the map, said Sarah.
Here you are but I bet you won't do any better than I have, Alan said.
You never know. I might be able to see exactly where we are, Sarah said.
You? I bet you don't even know which way to hold it, said Alan.

This works - we now know who is speaking - but it's not very exciting.

Step 3

We can make it a bit more interesting by splitting the speeches.

This is hopeless, Sarah shouted. Give me the map.
Here you are, Alan muttered, but I bet you won't do any better than I have.
You never know. I might be able to see exactly where we are.
You? I bet you don't even know which way to hold it.

You will notice that in lines 3 and 4 no names are mentioned, but it is still possible to know who is speaking.

Step 4

We haven't finished yet. There are some final touches to be added which will really bring the scene alive. We could call it decoration.

As the first spots of rain began to fall, Sarah jumped to her feet and glared at her brother. This is hopeless, she shouted as she pulled her hood up. Give me the map.
Alan thought for a moment before deciding to let her have a try. Here you are, he muttered, thrusting the map in her direction, but I bet you won't do any better than I have.
Sarah couldn't resist grinning at her brother's miserable expression. You never know. I might be able to see exactly where we are.
You? Alan spluttered, zipping up his coat. I bet you don't even know which way to hold it.

If you go back and look at the first version you will see how much it has improved.

Finally, a Mystery

I've used double quotes ( ) on this page because that is what teachers insist upon. However, in almost all books single quotes are used ( ). Perhaps you can solve this mystery.