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Dialogue tag tips for authors

Some time ago, I posted this on my website blog. Some of you may have read it. Others, no. So I thought I’d share here, partly inspired by having read something recently with, ah, a great many dialogue tags (she said in understatement).

While wearing my writerly sub-hat bearing the editor label, I see a lot of dialogue tags that are perhaps not perfect. Therefore, I thought I’d share a few pointers for those who don’t feel 100 per cent comfortable with this very important aspect of writing a novel.

1. Use sparingly. When we do use them, we generally use a comma after the comment, then quotation marks, followed by ‘he said’ or ‘she asked.’ Question marks and exclamation points do not require commas. (One could also argue that exclamation points are rarely required at all.)

“Why are you teasing that dragon?” he asked.

“I want to see the fire come out of his face,” she said.

2. There are several tricks you can use to identify your speaker without peppering your copy with tags. For example, stop a bit of dialogue in the middle and add a little action. “This murderer must be caught.” Adam poked the photo with his finger. “Today.” In this case, punctuate with periods, not commas. There is no direct tag.

3. Any breaks in the action will take your reader out of the story, but let’s face it; dialogue tags are often necessary. To keep that disruption to a minimum, restrict dialogue tags to said or asked most of the time. This gives you some leeway to add punch when you’re writing a particularly powerful or climactic scene. For example, my main character – yup, Adam – has a very loud voice. So once or twice in a book, I’ll use a big verb to demonstrate that – like roared or bellowed. Something you don’t see every day. (Also, use sentence fragments rarely.) Using that verb exclusively for one character also helps define him/her/them.

4. It’s best not to use a different tag after every single quote in a conversation. It will drive your reader mad. For example, “he inquired” followed by “she answered” then “he expostulated” then “she demurred” and so on. I’m getting tired just writing this point.

5. Be sure your tag IS a tag and not an action. She inquired, if one must, but not she shrugged. He continued, perhaps, but not he smirked. Shrugged and smirked are actions, not tags.

Should you REALLY want to add a smirk or smile or laugh or frown, try this: “I’ve decided that I will now stop writing this boring blog,” she said, grinning.

I’ll grant you some people will argue with the addition of grinning, and that’s fair. But sometimes, I can’t resist.