>>1398
Since this is international page there is no need to stick to standards of some specific english dialect and specific rules invented by specific people.

dialogue punctuation is not standardized and can be done in different ways and there is no need to stick to some single style. some styles are more popular some are less but it can be done in any way you like to reflect the mood you want to express and you can see that it is very common practice.
if you look over internet you can see various methods in use.
You are just proposing everyone to use what is most popular.

But this it is not some school when you have to stick to the rules, when you are author of story you invent the rules you can even invent your own grammar if you like.
Everything you write has some meaning, even if you write something wrong this is not really wrong, but serves certain purpose to provide different experience for the reader and to express your way of thinking.
stories are not written in "english" they are written in language of author.

>>1397
>Yes, the standards can be mixed, but that's the reason I don't read ....Joyce? Sounds about right, anyway. >James Joyce is a famous dead author, who in at least one of his stories used hyphens to open dialogue.

of course you shouldn't just replace quotes with hyphens
if you use different style you have to change everything accordingly.
it is something like computer programming language which you have to make it easy to understand.

Just think, if you decide to separate each line of dialogue do you really think it is good idea to use quotes just to frame each line? This excessive punctuation does not make much sense.

in that situation you are presenting dialogue like some forum thread
some description:
-- one statement
--reply to that statement
-- another statement
....

>Past tense (Had, Gave, Drove, Paid, ect.) tells you that it's already happened.
there is significant difference between immediate past tense and retelling something what happened some time ago.

because if you say
"Hello" said jenny
it is different from
Jenny said "Hello"
first sentence is probably happening in present and second is definitely happening in past
also you can shift from one to another any time in your story if you need to make it more intense or calm down