Dialogue punctuation question

I have a question for our punctuation gurus.

My upcoming dialogue competition entry consists entirely of dialogue spoken by the main character as part of a conversation she is having with a second character who remains invisible and unheard. I have chosen to use neither dialogue tags nor non-dialogue prose. (Why? Because I can’t make anything simple when I write.)

Here is an example:

“Well, you didn’t waste any time, did you?

“Oh no, I don’t mind. Have a seat.

“No thanks. I’ll pay for my own drink.

“My name? Hmm … let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Applying quotation marks as is done for an extended monologue feels correct. My question concerns the ending of each paragraph. Should an ellipsis be used, as can be done when writing a one-sided phone conversation, to indicate she is now waiting for the second character to speak?

“Well, you didn’t waste any time, did you?…

“Oh no, I don’t mind. Have a seat…

“No thanks. I’ll pay for my own drink…

“My name? Hmm … let’s not get ahead of ourselves...

I am leaning in this direction, but would like to hear your opinions. A concern is that this approach could lead to clutter since ellipses are also needed to indicate hesitation and pauses in speech.

Most likely, I am overthinking this.

The ellipses are not necessary, and like you said, too cluttering, the line break is pause enough, I think.

If a speaker's speech continues in subsequent lines, just the opening quote is correct. Only close at the end.

But if you have two speakers (even if just perceived) you'll need to make it like a normal conversation.

Another option could be using double quotes for one ans single quotes for the other one, or italics.

This is what you have shown:

“Well, you didn’t waste any time, did you?

“Oh no, I don’t mind. Have a seat.

“No thanks. I’ll pay for my own drink.

“My name? Hmm … let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

This is the way I was taught:

“Well, you didn’t waste any time, did you?"

“Oh no, I don’t mind. Have a seat."

“No thanks. I’ll pay for my own drink."

“My name? Hmm … let’s not get ahead of ourselves."

Since it is a dialogue between two people, there should be an open and closed quote for each part of the conversation.

Quote by HornyBill

This is what you have shown:

“Well, you didn’t waste any time, did you?

“Oh no, I don’t mind. Have a seat.

“No thanks. I’ll pay for my own drink.

“My name? Hmm … let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

This is the way I was taught:

“Well, you didn’t waste any time, did you?"

“Oh no, I don’t mind. Have a seat."

“No thanks. I’ll pay for my own drink."

“My name? Hmm … let’s not get ahead of ourselves."

Since it is a dialogue between two people, there should be an open and closed quote for each part of the conversation.

OP stated:

"My upcoming dialogue competition entry consists entirely of dialogue spoken by the main character as part of a conversation she is having with a second character who remains invisible and unheard."

His punctuation would be correct given that construct.

But if he isn't closing the first sentence with a quotation mark, why would he open the second sentence with one?

I find having an opening quotation mark and no closing quotation mark on every sentance very confusing and wrong looking.

Quote by deviantsusie

But if he isn't closing the first sentence with a quotation mark, why would he open the second sentence with one?

I find having an opening quotation mark and no closing quotation mark on every sentance very confusing and wrong looking.

If a piece you're writing calls for a speech spanning more than one paragraph, then an opening quotation mark should be placed at the start of each new paragraph the speaker continues into. But only one closing quotation mark is used, at the end of the speech.

That's how it's supposed to be done. If it's always the same utterance, same speaker, of course.

There's clearly a response between each of those lines from the unheard, unseen second person so it should be like AvidlyCurious set out with opening and closing punctuation.