Breaking Sentences with Speech Tags

He said, she said. Such simple words, yet they can be placed to make subtle differences to the meaning of your dialogue. "I believe Nancy is a good writer." That seems straightforward. Now read through the next three sentences...

"I," Sarah said, "believe Nancy is a good writer."

"I believe," Sarah said, "Nancy is a good writer."

"I believe Nancy," Sarah said, "is a good writer."

Each sentence now has a different subtext according to where the break is.

"I - and this is my personal belief even if it's not yours - believe Nancy is a good writer."

"I believe - but on the other I could be wrong about this - Nancy is a good writer."

"I believe Nancy - but not Jemima, Jim and John - is a good writer."

The belief is altered by the stress on the sentence, and the stress is indicated by the last word before the break. There's another one...

"I believe that," Sarah said, "Nancy is a good writer."

In this case the 'that' is acting like a drum roll, making us wait to find out, gripping the table with the suspense of it all, who exactly does Sarah believe is a good writer.

I think this is something we do naturally when we're speaking, so it's one reason why I always say my characters dialogue out loud, so I know where the stress is and therefore, where the break comes.