Below is an extract from a short story called 'An Easy Cure for Insomnia' by Pratima Mitchell. Look at how new speech starts a new line and how the punctuation comes outside or inside the speech marks depending on how and where it is reported in the sentence.
Grandfather Singh hadn’t slept properly for days.
He complained, “I just nodded off when an ambulance went by!”
“Dee daw dee daw,’ sang six-year-old Baba.
“It got worse...”
“Cats?” asked Minnie, Baba’s sister.
Grandfather sighed. “And the party down the street – people shouting, doors slamming. Then the
dawn chorus started...”
“Better consult the doctor,” said Minnie’s mum, hurrying the children to school.
“Never,” replied Grandfather. “He’ll just give me sleeping pills.”
A week later, Grandfather’s eyes had sunk into their sockets. He felt exhausted.
“A prize to anyone who comes up with a cure for my insomnia,” he announced. “Anything you want,”
he added recklessly. “Any treat that lasts a day.”
“Like the zoo?” Baba asked.
“The zoo with ice creams and a bar of chocolate each,” said Minnie, who had bargaining power.
“The zoo and London Eye. No, no! Wembley and the big match,” shouted Baba.
Minnie suggested roller skating in the park. “We’d need to buy Rollerblades.”
“Just come up with the goods,” Grandfather grumbled.
Baba and Minnie tried lots of cures – evening massage, which didn’t work; hot milk with honey at
night; a tape of the sea. Nothing did the trick.
Finally Minnie got Mum to invite Mrs Chatterjee to supper.
Mrs Chatterjee was the most boring person they knew. Her voice was like a hornet droning... Or a
tropical frog. She talked and talked but never said anything interesting.
When Grandfather heard, he said he would eat in his own room.
“She will be very offended,” said Minnie’s Mum.
