Dialogue: 10

Things to Know
● Dialogue has speech tags. We call them tags for short.

Said is the most frequently used tag.

“You gonna drink that?” she said.

“Yes, I am,” he said.
● You can use other words than said, like asked.

But you should use said 95% of the time.

And avoid descriptive tags

“You gonna drink that?” she sputtered.

“Yes, I am,” he proclaimed.
● Don’t use adverbs with your tags

“Don’t yell at me,” she screamed stridently.

● Many tags fall at the end of dialogue, but they might fall in the middle of long
phrases.

“I don’t love you anymore,” she said, “even though you still write me poems
every day and shower me with gifts and tell me I’m beautiful.”
● Rookie mistake: having characters constantly refer to one another by name.

“Bonnie, please pass the carrots.”

“I’d be glad to, Aunt Fiona.”
“Thanks, Bonnie.”
● Another way to signal which character is speaking is to link an action with the
dialogue.

“I don’t think I believe in God.” Bert put down his coffee cup to stare out the
window.
● In a conversation, leave out the tags once the speakers become clear.

“What was that?” the boy said. He jumped off the swing.
“You heard me, you’re gross,” Sarah said.
“Say it again. I dare you.”
“No need to dare. You’re gross.”
The boy picked up a rock.
“If you throw that at me, you’ll be gross and dead.”
● Dialogue can be summarized if necessary.

Talbot and I sat on the grass and I asked him questions I already knew the answer
to, like where was he from and where had he been going to school the year before
and who did he have for English. “English?” he said. “Parker, the bald one. I got
all A’s all through school and now parker tells me I can’t write.”
Dialogue can reveal information, cause conflict, progress the plot, characterize, and
more.