"Brad Angell" <oddball22@hotmail.com> wrote:

As far as the Dialogue with Narrative bit, it was just the style of writing 
I developed. Always thought one should only start new paragraphs when the 
focus shifts to someone else, it gets too long, or you start a new idea or 
scene change. Not really sure, otherwise. Is this a proper English thing? Or 
just a matter of stylistic interpretation?

It's a stylistic thing. Personally, I'd have to disagree with Don; I
think mixing dialog with narrative, if done judiciously, works well.
After all, we don't stop moving, observing, or thinking every time we
say something. Breaking a line of dialog with a character's action is
also a convenient way to identify the source of the action without the
need for explicit "he said" tags on every paragraph (and I do agree that
substituting other words for "said" is often awkward unless you're very
careful to choose those words appropriately), and provides a break in
the rhythm of the dialog.

As I said, a stylistic thing. Experiment with it and you may find a
style that works best for you -- or, better yet, several different
styles that you can choose between to best fit whatever story you're
trying to tell.


Gary Kleppe
http://www.akane.org/gary/comics.html

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