H is for He Said/She Said - A to Z Challenge

            “What the heck is a dialogue tag?” she inquired.

            “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?