Trying to decide on writing style and format for dialogue. Looking for Grammatical advice and suggestions. Native British English spearker

Question

I am new to this forum and writing and I am trying to decide on my preferred writing style. I am currently working on dialogue and looking for ideas and suggestions for grammatically correct and 'good looking' dialogue.

I have read many books, and like many authors, I think I will tend to adopt a combination of UK and American style for dialogue grammar. Namely:

Dialogue will be enclosed with single quotes and quotes within dialogue will be inside double quotes. Punctuation will be within the quote marks rather than after, for example :

‘That is the biggest horse I have ever seen,’ said Craig.

and

‘He called me an “arrogant fool” when I said I’d seen bigger horses,’ said John.

Now I am struggling with the following where the quote appears at the end of the dialogue, my best attempt so far would be :

‘He told me that "there are 1,000 different reasons to write", ‘ said John.

How does the above line read, is it acceptable, could it be better?

My other attempts were :

He told me, "There are 1,000 different reasons to write." ‘ said John.

and

He told me "there are 1,000 different reasons to write.", ‘ said John.

I would appreciate any feedback or ideas, since whilst there are grammatical rules there is obviously some flexibility in the way they are implemented

Answer 1

I am trying to decide on my preferred writing style ...

You won't learn your preferred writing style by reading answers and comments on this site or any other site, or from any instruction manual, you'll learn it by writing and reading, reading both your own words and those of others.

As for how to punctuate dialogue, don't give it another moment's thought until you are preparing a finished work for publication.