50+ Dialogue Tag Examples with Descriptions Basic Dialogue Tags When you do need a tag, these should accompany the bulk of your dialogue: said replied asked answered Descriptive Dialogue Tags Note: I’ve grouped these by category, but many of these do double—or triple—duty! Action/Body Language panted (breathing heavily/irregularly) wheezed (out of breath) gasped (catching of …
Using Descriptive Dialogue Tags So you’ve got the basics of dialogue tags down: You’ve reined in your urge to write “he said, she said” every other line, given your characters unique voices and speech patterns, and you’ve learned how to use action beats effectively. However, you’ve gotten to a special scene, and the …
What is an Action Beat? An action beat is a sentence, usually fairly short, used to describe the movement of your characters during dialogue. Beats can also indicate the tempo of the dialogue and tone of your character’s voice, adding gaps, pauses, and changes in pitch or timbre. Without them, your characters’ conversations …
Should I Use a Dialogue Tag? The decision of whether to include dialogue tags in your characters’ conversations is a tough one. As always, most of this will depend on your personal preference and style, but certain guidelines can help you choose whether you need one or not—and where. Obviously, you …
Which Words Can be Used as Dialogue Tags? In my time as an editor, I’ve seen a lot of confusion about which words can be used as dialogue tags. Only a verb that describes the action of speech (said, replied, answered, etc.) can be used as a dialogue tag. Oddly enough, “speak/spoke” is …
Which Dialogue Tags to Use—or Not There’s no shortage of advice when it comes to using dialogue tags, and you’ve probably heard—and seen—it all: Use only the basic tags; Don’t use tags at all; Do whatever you want, and damn the man! The truth is, there’s no one “right” way to …
Dialogue Tags The “He Said, She Said” of the Writing World Jump to Links Dialogue tags identify which character is speaking during a scene with dialogue, and learning to use them properly is frustrating for many writers (and even editors!) However, the two issues I come across most often are knowing which ones to …
Dialogue Tags: The “He Said, She Said” of the Writing World Read More »
The Role of Commas in Dialogue Dialogue has its own set of rules and regulations, which are—arguably—the most complicated of all. I talk more about how to write dialogue in this post, but I’ll give you a brief summary of the role of commas in dialogue here. If a tag comes before the …
Using Commas to Separate Items in a List Perhaps the most notable place you’ll find commas is within a list with three or more items—if there are only two, the coordinating conjunctions “and/or” are sufficient to join them. For the sake of this post, I’m including multiple descriptive words used for a single …
Using Commas to Introduce Conjunctive Adverbs Using a comma is the standard way to separate conjunctive adverbs from the bulk of a sentence. Similar to a coordinating conjunction, a conjunctive adverb is a word or phrase used to transition from one thought to the next; conjunctive adverbs are more versatile, though, as they’re …