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submitted 17 hours ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I'm editing a story right now, and they use this construction with no speaking verbs a lot:

Rachel was finishing washing the dinner plates, “I know this will be hard on them, but Shelby needs to go on home."

I know you could replace that comma with a period, but I wonder if it's common to use a comma or semicolon to avoid slowing the reader too much?

This next one makes more sense to me because laughing could conceivably be a speaking verb:

Maddie's laugh was laced with sarcasm, “Mark, looks like you’ve got a friend.”

That one could even be a colon...

Am I overthinking this? Should I just replace them all with periods?

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 15 hours ago

Maddie's laugh was laced with sarcasm, “Mark, looks like you’ve got a friend.”

This seems like a classic example of overexplaining. The dialog is already clearly sarcastic; why not:

Maddie laughed. "Mark, looks like you've got a friend!" she said.