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Grammar question about punctuation before dialogue (hexbear.net)

submitted 2 months ago by FumpyAer@hexbear.net to c/askchapo@hexbear.net

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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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[–] FumpyAer@hexbear.net 2 points 2 months ago

The story is so dialogue-heavy that I'd like to avoid adding more linking verbs. I'd rather just separate it as-is with some punctuation. My question was whether it's normal to use a comma there to avoid a more pronounced stop to the flow of reading, but honestly, I think that a period won't be that different in terms of how the story is delivered.