We’ve already talked about writing authentic dialogue and making sure the pacing works, but it doesn’t matter how well you write your dialogue if the reader doesn’t know who’s talking. Your dialogue needs one of two kinds of tags: conventional or action.

Conventional Dialogue Tags
There are three generally accepted conventional dialogue tags: said, asked, and whispered. Anything other than these three tags is considered telling and should be avoided. In fact, you may find some publishers who prefer to stick only with said, as asked and whispered can also be considered telling. Here’s how:

“What do you want to do?” Bob asked.

The question mark shows that Bob asked a question, so it’s not necessary to say that; however, it can trip up the reader to see:

“What do you want to do?” Bob said.

Most readers expect to see asked, so writing anything else can be distracting. Something similar is true for whispered. Which bit of dialogue is easier to read?

“Try to be quiet,” Beth whispered.
“Try to be quiet.” Beth lowered the volume of her voice.

Technically there’s nothing wrong with either of those sentences. It’s really a matter of personal preference (your’s and your publisher’s). What isn’t a matter of preference are other tags: replied, groaned, answered, quipped, etc. All of these are considered telling or unnecessary; here’s why:

“What’s going on?” Caleb asked.
“We’re going shopping,” Lucy replied.
There’s no need to say that Lucy replied; the reader can see that she’s replying to Caleb’s question.

“I can’t take it anymore,” Mark moaned.
Try to moan and talk at the same time; you can’t do it. Either change the comma to a period, change the tag, or remove the tag.

As a new writer, these creative tags need to be avoided, which will frustrate you because you’ve seen them in dozens of published novels. Unfortunately, it’s a bit of a double standard – successful, multi-published authors often get away with using more creative tags, but too many can actually hurt a new author’s chance at getting published. If you don’t want to use said, asked, or whispered, I recommend the next option.

Action Tags
The perfect option for showing ownership of dialogue while also showing the characters’ emotions, action tags can clarify dialogue while helping move the story forward. Consider this scene with conventional tags:

 Lil and Phil sat at the dining room table. Phil frowned at his plate of food.
“I don’t like eggs,” said Phil.
“It’s all we have,” Lil said.
“Then why don’t we go shopping?” Phil asked.
“Because we don’t have any money,” said Lil. She grabbed her purse and pulled out her empty wallet. “I get paid tomorrow. We can go shopping then. Until then, eat your eggs.”

Look what happens when you replace those tags with action tags:

Lil and Phil sat at the dining room table.
Phil frowned at his plate of food. “I don’t like eggs.”
Lil shrugged. “It’s all we have.”
“Then why don’t we go shopping?” Phil dropped his fork.
“Because we don’t have any money.” Lil grabbed her purse and pulled out her empty wallet. “I get paid tomorrow. We can go shopping then. Until then, eat your eggs.”

Take it a step further and apply what we’ve discussed about pacing and you get this:

Lil and Phil sat at the dining room table.
Phil frowned at his plate of food. “I don’t like eggs.”
Lil shrugged. “It’s all we have.”
“Then why don’t we go shopping?”
“Because we don’t have any money. I get paid tomorrow. We can go shopping then. Until then, eat your eggs.”

Since there are only two people in this scene, tags aren’t necessary on every line. The start of a new paragraph shows the reader that a new character is speaking, so identifying Lil and Phil early allows you to write the scene without excessive tags.

The most important this to remember about action tags is this: they should help develop the scene or move the story forward – you don’t want to add tags just for the sake of using them. That will add unnecessary words and slow down the scene.

Do you still have questions about dialogue? Post them below or contact me directly!

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