Dialogue tags punctuation1/21/2024 Then Abbey said, “Are you trying to trick me?"įinally, if someone is, for example, asking a question, you should always use a proper question mark at the end of the line of dialogue, and then add your _ said as if you had used a comma (ie, with a lowercase he said or she said rather than a capitalized He said or She said). Is it yours?”įinally, you can put the dialogue tag in front of the dialogue, though this is a less conventional approach, so it should be used with care. The man gripped her elbow, steadying her. As I noted earlier, this breaks up the dialogue and can make it feel more natural, since most people don’t speak super-fast without taking pauses. You can also include information on what’s happening before or during the dialogue. Right: She offered him a halfhearted shrug. Wrong: She offered him a halfhearted shrug, “Guess I got lucky.” Right: “Not even one.” She offered him a halfhearted shrug. Wrong: “Not even one,” she offered him a halfhearted shrug. A lot of writers try to follow dialogue with a comma and then an action, but you can’t speak an action. Note, however, that in the example above there should be a period at the end of the line of dialogue, not a comma, the way there is when the dialogue is followed with _ said. “I’m sorry I’m late.” She shuffled her feet, avoiding his eyes. Sometimes you don’t even need the “she said” part: She shuffled her feet, avoiding his eyes. This helps bring the scene to life for the reader. In many cases you may be better off showing the character doing an action. “I’m sorry I’m late,” she said regretfully. You may feel like you need to use such strong verbs regularly to show your characters’ emotions, but you’re usually better off adding a brief sentence that shows the character’s body language or actions instead. These stand out in a big way, and can be very distracting for the reader, particularly when your writing is peppered with them. You should use other tags-like shouted, screamed, bellowed, sobbed, sang, blurted, whispered, wailed-sparingly. This keeps it from feeling redundant, even if it’s used frequently. In other words, as readers, we’re so used to seeing it that we don’t really notice it while we’re reading. “I lost track of the time.”Īs I mentioned above, said is the most common dialogue tag, because it disappears for the reader. If someone new has several lines to say, and it’s probably not going to be entirely clear who’s speaking until you reach the _ said tag, then you should insert the dialogue tag after the first sentence of his or her speech, like this: I was starting to worry about you.”īy that third line, “I had my phone on,” we may want to add a sentence tag back in (“I had my phone on,” she said), both to keep the reader from getting lost and to break the dialogue up a bit. “I wish you’d called to let me know you were going to be late. If you do, the reader will start to get confused.įor example, if we pick up where we stopped with June and David’s conversation: However, you may not be able to go more than a few lines without some kind of indication of who’s speaking. We know that June and David are the only people involved in this conversation, so once June starts speaking again, we don’t have to tag her dialogue. In the third sentence, we skipped the dialogue tag completely, because it’s unnecessary. That way everyone knows which characters are involved in the scene. In this example, we tag both June’s dialogue and David’s dialogue with their names. “I just ran by the grocery store on the way home.” Let’s pretend for the example below that we’ve just started a new scene: He said and she said are the most common dialogue tags, though if it’s not completely clear who’s speaking when you use he said or she said, it’s time to use your characters’ names. You should use a dialogue tag anytime it’s not completely clear who is speaking.Ī dialogue tag lets the reader know who’s speaking. Here are some of the most common errors I see, and how to correct them. Dialogue can be tough, but for a lot of writers, tagging and punctuating it correctly is even harder.
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