Verified answer

Choice 2a is correct.

If I had written it any of the other ways in English class, it would have been marked wrong.

edit: I answered according to "proper" English; I wasn't considering dialects. But SSF is right if you're writing the way people talk, like Mark Twain did.

1a would fit your needs the best. Yes it should be capitalized.

I believe there is flexibility here in choosing the comma placement. If there is no pause in the characters speech, then I agree you should eliminate the comma.

I was just reread "The Great Gatsby" recently, which includes some interesting commentary in the back of the book. In the first paragraph, the original editor added something like 6 commas that he thought belonged there. In the revised text, they were all taken out. The commentator mentioned that Fitzgerald had what he referred to as a "perfect ear" for how to write dialogue, and that the original was far superior to what the editor had changed it to, even if the editor was following more generally-accepted form.

Usually Choice 2 (a) but it depends. *Does* Joe pause between "well" and "maybe"? Use a comma if he does; don't if he doesn't. It's all in how he says it.

Edit: Yeah, it's fine not to use a comma if you don't want him to pause between "well" and "maybe." You definitely need to capitalize the "w" in "well."

2(a) is technically correct.

However, I doubt that anyone except a very strict editor (or English teacher) would fault you for 1(a).