Room 132

Sometimes instructional grammar books aren’t as helpful as seeing a good example. Many of my students have problems with the technical details of writing dialogue. My sweetheart Jennifer found this great excerpt at Amazon.com to demonstrate dialogue. Can you tell what the rules of dialogue are? (Note: I can’t format indents in this blog.)

Excerpt from Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt

Mae sat there frowning, a great potato of a woman with a round, sensible face and calm brown eyes. “It’s no use having that dream,” she said. “Nothing’s going to change.”
“You tell me that every day,” said Tuck, turning away from her onto her side. “Anyways, I can’t help what I dream.”
“Maybe not,” said Mae. But, all the same, you should have got used to things by now.”
Tuck groaned. “I’m going back to sleep,” he said.
“Not me,” said Mae. “I’m going to take the horse and go down to the wood to meet them.”
“Meet who?”
“The boys, Tuck! Our sons. I’m going to ride down to meet them.”
“Better not do that,” said Tuck.
“I know,” said Mae, “but I just can’t wait to see them. Anyways, it’s ten years since I went to Treegap. No one’ll remember me. I’ll ride in at sunset, just to the wood. I won’t go into the village. But, even if someone did see me, they won’t remember. They never did before, now, did they?”
“Suit yourself, then,” said Tuck into his pillow. “I’m going back to sleep.”
Mae Tuck climbed out of bed and began to dress: three petticoats, a rusty brown skirt
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