My Library Blog

1. What is a dialogue tag?

A dialogue tag, also known as attribution or speech tags, are small phrases before, after, or in the middle of dialogue in a story that identify the speaker of that dialogue. Their purpose is to provide clarity and to help the reader keep track of which character is talking in a scene and not get confused.

Ideally, dialogue tags should fade in the background. Dialogue, on the other hand, should stand out and convey all the emotion or lack thereof the character is feeling. Dialogue and action beats (more on those later) are great for showing and immersing the reader in your story. Dialogue tags are there to make sure readers know who is talking. They should pop-up every once in a while.

2. A little bit of language science

Okay, now I’m going to start with a little jargon but I will underline and define these words as best I can.

In traditional grammar, nouns are words that name something, such as a person, place, thing, or idea. A pronoun is a word used in place of a noun or noun phrase in discourse to avoid repetition and improve flow. Linguistically speaking, both of these definitions have problems but they will do for now. The person, place, thing, or idea that the noun refers to is its referent, and this is a word that I will probably repeat a lot in the following examples.

Dialogue (or discourse) in a story is direct speech. It is written with simple (‘’) or double (“”) quotation marks to identify it from the rest of the text. These are also quotations, as you are literally reading what someone has already said verbatim. Keeping track of which character is talking is known as referent tracking and it is something that we constantly do in our heads that most of the time we don’t notice we’re doing it. But this is what dialogue tags are helping us do; they are helping us keep track of the referents.

When a referent is first mentioned (new information), we do so with a noun. When it has already been mentioned (given or old information), we use a pronoun. This flow (or referent continuance) can be interrupted when a new noun, typically another character name, pops up. Now we know that there are two people in the conversation and to “recover” the previous referent (the first speaker) in the discourse (text), we mention its name again. And so on.

The opposite of direct speech is free indirect speech, and I will talk about that in another post.

3. The dialogue tags said and asked

The simplest dialogue tag is said. Asked also disappears in the background. But dialogue tags such as shrieked, guffawed, and bellowed call attention to themselves and a reader will notice. Likewise, too many dialogue tags are distracting and if you repeat the same tag in one conversation 5 or 6 times, that too is incredibly distracting for a reader.

EXAMPLE 1

Thomil had taken the long way back scouting. […] (He) was the last one to rejoin the clan, his return bringing their numbers back to forty―forty people left of a nation that had once numbered in the tens of thousands. “No pursuers,” Beyern said as Thomil passed him. […] “Join your family.” Beyern nodded to where Maeva and Arras leaned into each other in the dark. “And put your hood up, fool.”

The first word in this novel is a name, and it refers to one of the main characters of the book. This is good. Generally speaking, it is recommended to introduce your protagonists early on (in the first or second chapter) to let the reader start getting to know him/her. However, it is not Thomil who speaks first here. That is Beyern, introduced in this paragraph with a second noun indicating his name. This is new information and, as language users, we file it in our brains under that category. Now we know that two characters are interacting with one another.

Notice that the dialogue tag said is only used one time in this example. And its purpose is to identify which one of the two characters is talking. Once we know who the speaker is―Beyern and not Thomil―the following dialogue does not need tags because the flow is not interrupted by a new (or old; in this case, Thomil) noun. But what is more important here, the dialogue tag disappears in the background to the point of invisibility. Hence, the dialogue itself takes prominence. 

EXAMPLE 2

“Are you ready?” Arras asked, because that was the kind of inane question he liked to ask.

“No.” Thomil tried not to sound exasperated with his sister’s husband, but really, how ready could a person ever be for near-certain death?

Like I said before, asked is another dialogue tag that fades easily in the background. As readers, we barely notice it. Its complementary tags, in my opinion, are answered and replied. Reply, however, is starting to call a bit of attention to itself. In this example, the author chose to keep the tag simple, but added a sentence after it that gives us a small glimpse of the new character’s (Arras) personality. This will help us identify him easier next time he speaks.

The following sentence is an action beat. That is, a sentence featuring a character identifier (name) and a verb to describe a physical movement, gesture, or reaction that takes place alongside dialogue to reveal emotion, in this case, exasperation. Action beats are also used to manage pacing. They replace or supplement dialogue tags. In this example, it replaces the tag. But they can also be used before dialogue. For example, “She jolted from her seat like an electrified conduit. ‘Yes, Archmage Supreme!’”.Gender also helps us keep track of referents. In an exchange between a man and a woman, we know which one says the dialogue because the gender clarifies it.

4. Other dialogue tags

Now compare said and asked to the following:

EXAMPLE 3

“Arras!” Maeva wailed as her husband fell to the snow in a red flower indistinguishable from any other.

“I care,” Sciona protested, immediately aware that her tone was too defensive to convince.

“Why would I remember that?” Sciona snapped. “I was a little busy preparing for the most important test of my life.”

“So, those are the archmages?” Alba whispered in awe.

“Don’t patronize me,” Sciona rasped.

Remember the golden rule “Show, not Tell”? The dialog tags in these examples stand out in a negative way because they’re telling. In the first example, the sentence after the tag explains why Maeva wailed, and explaining is telling. In the second, we can protest just like Sciona did but we cannot experience becoming aware that her tone was too defensive to convince. The dialog tag snapped in the following example denotes someone speaking harshly or sharply and it is better than these adverbs to describe the way a character talks but it stands out because we don’t usually talk like this unless we’re angry; the same goes for rasped in the last example or when we’re experiencing another emotion, like amazement, for whispering in awe.

5. Grammar rules to write dialogue

When the dialog tag appears before the quoted sentence:

EXAMPLE 4

Seeming to take pity on Jerrin Mordra, wispy Archmage Thelanra cleared his throat and said in his kindly wobbling voice, “That’s quite alright, Mr. Mordra. Would you like to try it again?”

She almost didn’t believe it when Archmage Orynhel peered down at his papers, adjusted his spectacles, and called, “Sciona Freynan!”

In this example, there is a

• Comma before the opening quotation mark.
• Capital letter to indicate the beginning of a sentence inside the opening quotation mark.
• A period to end the quoted sentence.
• Closing quotation mark.

This dialog tag, however, is followed by an adverbial phrase that modifies the noun voice and because we cannot act out kindly as we can whisper or yell, it is telling. After all, we don’t usually use adverbs to think.

In the following example, the dialogue tag is a single word followed by a comma, both the opening quotation mark and a capital letter to indicate the beginning of a sentence, the punctuation mark that indicates the end of the sentence and the closing quotation mark.

When the dialogue tag occurs after the quoted sentence:

This is the most common type of dialogue tag found in fiction writing. Here are some examples:

EXAMPLE 5

“I’m in?” Sciona said blankly.

“But…how?” Sciona said weakly.

“I suppose your father’s made sure you have all the best,” she said icily.

Here, there is a

• Capital letter to indicate the beginning of a sentence inside the opening quotation mark.
• A comma to end the quoted sentence before the closing quotation mark that precedes the dialogue tag.
• Dialogue tag at the end with a period to end the sentence.

But what do blankly and weakly mean exactly? Do they refer to something that we can dramatize and experience as well? No, not particularly. Yes, we can say something in a weak tone of voice but is it too weak or just a little weak? The adverb is trying to explain how Sciona said those words―blankly and weakly―and is thus telling.

In the third example, the comma before the pronoun indicates the end of the quotation while the period after the adverb clarifies where the sentence ends. In this example too, the adverb is telling. What exactly does it mean to say something icily?

I’ve noticed that this book uses a significant number of adverbs in dialogue.

When the dialogue tag is placed in the middle of a quoted sentence:

EXAMPLE 6

“He saw my talent,” she protested, “just like he saw yours.”

“I know it’s unusual for a mage,” she said, “but don’t judge me.”

“But he could seal the pipe at a certain point,” Tommy said, “narrow it, install a valve?”

In this set of examples, there is a

• Capital letter to indicate the beginning of a sentence inside the opening quotation mark.
• A comma to end the quoted sentence before the closing quotation mark that precedes the dialogue tag.
• Comma before the second opening quotation mark.
• Lower case letter to indicate the second piece of the quotation is still a part of the sentence that began in the first piece of the quotation.
• A period to end the quoted sentence.
• Closing quotation mark.

When the dialogue tag separates two sentences of quoted speech:

EXAMPLE 7

“Sorry,” Alba said. “Sciona isn’t feeling well.”

“No,” Sciona said in a ragged voice. “Don’t.”

The rules are a little different, however, when the two separated sentences of quoted speech are independent sentences. Here, there is a

• Capital letter to indicate the beginning of a sentence inside the first opening quotation mark.
• A comma to end the quoted sentence before the closing quotation mark that precedes the dialogue tag.
• A period at the end of the sentence (and after the dialogue tag) to indicate that the sentence with the first piece of quoted material has ended.
• Capital letter to indicate the beginning of a sentence inside the second opening quotation mark.
• The second piece of quoted material appearing on the same line as the first to indicate that the same person/speaker said both pieces of quoted material, even though the second piece of quoted material does not have a dialogue tag.
• A period to end the quoted sentence.
• Closing quotation mark.

This is the end of Part 1. Please look out for the next part soon.

Sources:

Lukeman, Noah. 2006. A Dash of Style: The Art and Mastery of Punctuation. W.W. Norton & Company.

Hardy, Janice. 2016. Understanding Show, Don’t Tell (And Really Getting It). Fiction University. Skill Builders Series.