![]() ‘Well,’ Chucky said, frowning as he wiped his oily hands on a rag, ‘you’re not wrong.’ This also helps continue to build the story while characters are talking. ![]() We can also use dialogue tags and character actions together to give the reader a little more context. This really just ties back into another version of ye olde’ favourite: show, don’t tell. In the second, we probably infer that the character says she’s tired, but something more is afoot. In the first, all we can take away is that the character is tired. ‘I’m just tired,’ she said, forcing a smile. There’s a lot to be said for taking the opportunity of speech to tell us more about what’s going on in the story. Using Action for and around Dialogue Tags Well, like the first line demonstrates, perhaps giving the reader a little bit of action will serve to tell us who’s speaking. (Who hasn’t had to go back and count down the lines to make sure they’ve got the speaker right?)īut, extremes aside, the short example above shows how you can clear out some deadwood from your work by choosing to minimise tags where they’re not necessary. Twenty lines of back-and-forth dialogue without a tag in sight makes it nigh on impossible to keep a track of who’s talking. Of course, it’s important to remember not to take this to the extreme. We know who’s saying each bit, and we get a fairly clear idea of how they’re feeling about it at the time… but there are no dialogue tags in sight. Not the snazziest bit of writing, but the point remains. ‘Well, sure, but maybe you need to-ever thought about that?’ I sighed and put a hand on Doug’s shoulder. Or, in a short back and forth, you may not need tags at all. As Now Novel argues here, there are frequently times where you don’t need a dialogue tag at all: using an action can suffice. It’s worth considering if you need a dialogue tag at all to signpost the speaker. Do we need anything more? ‘Squawked’ might actually be accurate in this instance…Ī better question might be… do we actually need a tag there at all? Be Stingy With Them Enter the argument for simple dialogue tags, mostly comprised of ‘said’ and perhaps ‘asked’. Using other stylistic language, while fun, often serves to distract us from the dialogue itself, which should provide our main point of access for the characters’ thoughts and feelings. They’re about subtly providing the reader with vital information (who is speaking), but they shouldn’t take centre stage. It was fun for me, and I definitely thought I was giving the reader what they wanted/needed: information about how the characters were acting.īecause, as Novel Writing Help notes here, dialogue tags are designed to be functional, not artistic. Bob screamed, Ella groaned, Chaz whispered and Lily grumbled. ![]() Every time someone spoke, they did it in a different way. ![]() In the interests of full disclosure: I used to be a fiend for using diverse dialogue tags. Okay, now that we’ve clarified that bit of information, let’s crack on to the real issue at hand: how best do we use them? The Case for Simple Dialogue Tags In each of these examples, the phrase ‘Jackie asked’ is the dialogue tag. ![]() In the middle: ‘Well,’ Jackie asked, ‘what’s the point?’ Also known as an ‘attribution’, a dialogue tag may appear before, after, or in the middle of the actual dialogue.īefore: Jackie asked, ‘well, what’s the point?’Īfter: ‘Well, what’s the point?’ Jackie asked. Wait wait - What are we even really talking about here?Ī dialogue tag is a small phrase that serves to tell the reader who is speaking. (Except using apostrophes for plurals: we all know how I feel about that.) There are, however, some solid general guidelines worth considering when using dialogue in your writing. I’ll start with the usual disclaimer: as with a great many other aspects of writing, there’s not strictly a ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way to do most things. And, of course, it raises a lot of questions. This is, like most things (read: anything) to do with writing, an area in which, surprise surprise, lots of people have opinions. Dialogue tags: we can’t really have a story without them… but are we using them well? I don’t mean our grammar or punctuation (though this post has some great pointers for that), but rather how we integrate tags in a way that’s smooth, skilful, and doesn’t disrupt the reader. ![]()
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