Dialogue Tags – Helpful Tips

Dialogue livens up a story and serves a critical role, but equally important is the dialogue tag. Today, I’m teaching how to handle dialogue tags with finesse and just as important, why dialogue tags should be handled in certain ways.

Should you use said or some other creative tag?

This is something that troubles a lot of writers and there are some heated debates about this issue. I remember being taught in school that you should try to use something other than the word said all the time. But I’ve since learned the best practice and the reason behind it.

Said is a word intended to blend into the background. It serves a purpose without drawing attention to itself. Similar to using an article like a or the. When you start being creative with your tags, you pull the reader out of the story by drawing unnecessary attention to that word. Plus, when you start using tags like snapped, yelled, demanded, exploded, gushed, hissed, etc. one of the pitfalls is that your characters can start having mood swings just by the switch in intensity or delivery of a line, which is distracting.

This is not to say never use other tags. Sometimes a character needs to whisper or yell, but consider these as something you use on rare occasions.

Extra Tip: Don’t add an adverb thinking that it punches up the word said. In other words, don’t say, “Sarah said, glaringly.”

Extra Tip: Hissed when used as a tag is often misused. Writers use hissed thinking it means to say something forcefully. It really means to extend the “s” sound in words, so if you have no s’s in your dialogue this would not only be going against the advice of using said instead, but it’d also be a misuse of the tag.

Now that you know said is preferable, I’m going to teach you how to avoid using said.

All of that just to come to the section where I’m going to tell you that yeah, it is a good idea to eliminate some uses of said, but it isn’t by replacing it with a different tag.

A way to eliminate a tag is to describe what the character who is delivering the line is doing at that time.

Ex: “Don’t hug me after saying something so mean.” Sarah folded her arms and turned from Drew.

The reader knows that Sarah is the one talking because of her actions. Here’s the warning about what not to do with this method. Don’t use meaningless gestures. Use the opportunity to reveal how the character is feeling through their movements or disclose something else about them. Don’t overuse gestures like frowned, shrugged, pushed up his glasses. They are very common gestures writers use to the point of being cliché. Sometimes your character needs to frown, but be careful of overusing it.

Extra Tip: Be careful about your character pausing (“I don’t know what to do anymore.” Jack paused. “It seems hopeless.”). Characters pausing is overused by writers and is often used as a pacing device to create space before the delivery of the next line. Instead, show the character doing something in place of talking (“I don’t know what to do anymore.” Jack rubbed his injured knee knowing he couldn’t play football for the rest of the season. “It seems hopeless.”)

Extra Tip: Avoid sighing characters (“I’ve done everything I can think of.” Clara sighed.). Sighing is ambiguous. It could mean a character is tired, frustrated, angry, relieved, put out, etc. Sure we all sigh, which is why writers tend to make their characters sigh a lot, but it doesn’t mean much and gets overused.

Here’s more information about How to Effectively Use Body Language in Writing.