Answer: First-Person Narration and Dialogue

[melayneseahawk]

campylobacter asked:

Can one interrupt dialogue with first person narration? (with examples from Firefly, Stargate SG-1, and The X-Files)

The short answer is yes.

Comments

[campylobacter]

Yay! Options! <3 <3 <3

Thanks so much for wrestling with this formatting issue in both 1st and 3rd person PoV situations.

And using my fandoms & prompts as examples. ;-D

[lmichelle599]

Thanks. :)

[cyyt]

I know this isn't related to the above question, but for the last example:

"Mulder, you're being ridiculous," I said, handing him a file folder, "but here are those test results you asked about.",

when do you use a comma, rather than a full stop after 'file folder'?

Anyway, I thought this was an interesting read.(:

[melayneseahawk]

Since that whole piece of dialogue and narration is one sentence, a comma is appropriate. The split dialogue is a single sentence being interrupted. If the dialogue were two sentences, with narration in between, a full stop would be necessary. Like this:

"Mulder, you're being ridiculous," I said, handing him a file folder. "But here are those test results you asked about."

Hope this helps.

[cyyt]

So basically, it depends on how the writer wishes to portray it? Though I do think some of these just look 'right' when choosing to split the dialogue or keep it as a sentence.

[melayneseahawk]

Yeah, it's pretty much a combination of the two. :D