“It’s
the way a writer tells you who’s speaking,” he instructed.
“You
mean something like ‘he thundered, or ‘she asserted,’ or ‘he bellowed?’” she
offered.
“Exactly,”
he praised. “You can also use ‘he said’ and ‘she said.’”
“But
that’s boring,” she muttered.
A
lot of writers feel this way. “He said” and “she said” are boring. Wouldn’t it
be better to jazz up your dialogue tags by making them more dynamic and
descriptive? Not necessarily.
Don’t
get me wrong – descriptive tags have their place, but can easily be overused.
Take the example above. Didn’t all of that instructing and offering and
muttering distract you from the conversation?
Remember,
the point of a dialogue tag is to identify the speaker. For the most part, “he
said” and “she said” is perfect for that. They fade into the background instead
of jarring the reader with thundering, asserting, or bellowing.
She
picked up a pen and paper to take a few notes. “Do you always need to use a
dialogue tag?”
“No,”
he said. “Sometimes a character has a distinctive voice and it’s obvious who is
speaking.”
“That
makes sense,” she said.
“Other
times, two characters might be chatting back and forth. The reader can assume
they take turns speaking, so you can sometimes omit the tag there too.”
“But
won’t the reader lose track of who’s speaking if you don’t use dialogue tags as
a reminder of who’s speaking?”
He
nodded. “That’s why you can’t have an entire conversation between two people
without them.”
The
characters above discuss how you can sometimes omit a dialogue tag. You may
have also noticed I substituted a tag in the first and last lines with a description of a character’s action instead.
Two
final things to avoid: Stating the obvious and adverbial tags.
“Go
to hell!” she shouted.
Isn’t
obvious that she’s shouting? The content of the dialogue and exclamation point
make that clear. This is a good place to use a description of her expression or
actions instead.
“Don’t
wake the baby,” she said quietly.
Wouldn’t
it be better to use “whispered?” If you’re not going with the simple “she
said,” try a more specific verb instead of a using “said” plus an adverb.
Here's what I try to remember when it comes to dialogue tags: When
in doubt, keep it simple with “he said” and “she said.” Mix up simple tags with
descriptions, an occasional dropped/inferred tag, and the rare dynamic tag.
What
dialogue tag hints and rules do you use?
