If you need a guideline, analyze a book you admire. Use that ratio as a guideline for your work, but only use it as a guideline. The best judge of balance is your own instinct. If it feels right, it probably is, but you need to be honest with yourself. Format Just as a manuscript s appearance and presentation must adhere to a set of conventions and formatting requirements, each component of the manuscript must also conform to its own set of conventions.
Dialogue is no exception.
Certain mechanical and formatting rules should be followed when writing dialogue. Dialogue Tags Dialogue tags show the reader who s speaking. And this is an action tag. If you use a tag to show the character s action alone, do not connect it to the dialogue with a comma. Sorry, babe, no can do.