![]() ![]() Says Beth Hill, ‘These tags are background, part of the mechanics of story they meet their purpose but don’t stand out. ![]() When it comes to dialogue, remember the function of the tag: to indicate which character is speaking. They’re great words for describing what other parts of a person’s body can do, but are unsuitable for use as dialogue tags: The physicality of these verbs will jar your reader and they immediately introduce an element of inauthenticity into the prose. Non-speech-based dialogue tags and the reality flopĮven if you decide you do want a more extravagant tag than said, take care when using verbs that are not related to the mechanics of speaking.Įxamples include: smiled, gesticulated, ejaculated, thrusted, fawned, scowled, winced, smirked, sneered, pouted, frowned, indicated and laughed. I’m not giving you rules but suggesting ways of thinking about the function of your tagging so that you keep your reader immersed in the spaces of your choosing. In the fourth example, amazing and the exclamation mark (!) tell us that the speaker exclaimed, so again the showy tag is redundant. The speech tags repeat what we already know we should consider whether said is a less invasive alternative. In the first three examples, it’s clear from the dialogue that an opinion, a command and a threat have been given. Here’s an example of how it looks when it's been overworked (see, too, the final section in this article, ‘ Omitting dialogue tags’): Hissed is one that I rather like, though some writers and editors are less keen.Įven though said 's invisibility makes it harder to overuse, avoid the temptation to place it after every expression. Speech tags aren’t the only way to do this – for example, you could use action beats before the dialogue, or adverbial phrases after your tags – but few readers will complain if you use the likes of whispered, yelled, shouted, muttered or whined. Still, there will be times when you’ll want a tag that tells your reader about, say, the sound quality, the mood of the speech, or the tone of voice. If your reader is focusing on your avoidance, their focus is not where it should be – on your story. If you deliberately try to avoid said, you run the risk that your writing will reflect that intention. I agree, and I recommend you embrace it! If someone’s told you to avoid repeating said, head for your bookshelf and take a peek inside some of your favourite novels for reassurance. This helps to make the dialogue realistic by keeping its superstructure invisible,’ say Mittelmark and Newman in How Not to Write a Novel (p. The speech tag said ‘is a convention so firmly established that readers for the most part do not even see it. Why said often works best, and when it’s not enough A good tag doesn’t impair how natural the speech sounds.A good tag doesn’t repeat what the dialogue’s already told the reader.Rather than give you a bunch of zombie rules that you’ll want to break about two seconds after you’ve read them, here are three guidelines to bear in mind when thinking about which tags to use, which to avoid, and when you might omit them altogether: Placed in between direct speech, tags can moderate the pace by forcing the reader to pause, and improve the rhythm by breaking up longer chunks. ‘That’s the last thing I expected you to say,’ Dave said..‘That,’ said Dave, ‘is the last thing I expected you to say.’. ![]()
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