dialogue: part three
When and why are dialogue tags used in writing speech? Why should you make them invisible and how come you don’t always need them? All the ‘rules’ and conventions around dialogue can seem confusing, but I aim to make everything much clearer…
what is a dialogue tag?
A dialogue tag is a small phrase either before, after or in between the dialogue…
“Come here,” said Dad. (…after)
She scowled at him and said, “Why should I?” (…before)
“Well,” he replied, “just because I told you to.” (…in between)
why do we use dialogue tags?
They tell us who is talking.
They are sometimes called ATTRIBUTIONS.
They attribute the speech to a certain character.
when do we use them?
We DON”T need them in real life!
We don’t need them in a film, a play or on TV!
We only use them in writing to make it clear which character is speaking. So as far as possible they should be INVISIBLE.
how often should we use them?
ONLY use them enough to make sure that the reader doesn’t get confused as to who is talking. If there are only two characters in a scene, you will need to use less as it will often be obvious who is talking.
This is a bit of a balancing act: too many and they will get annoying and start to become too ‘visible’; not enough and the reader will find themselves counting backwards to try and work out who is talking.
why should I make them invisible?
Let’s think of some examples of possible words to use in a dialogue tag…
They look like a good bunch of words, don’t they? They would tell the reader exactly how the person was talking. And it makes me look clever, knowing lots of good words.
And if I added these adverbs, I’d be even clearer, wouldn’t I? …
We could have…
…she shouted crossly.
…he whispered softly.
…he exclaimed sullenly.
…he whimpered fearfully.
…he thundered loudly.
BUT, tags are meant to be as INVISIBLE as possible. Using lots of dialogue tags like the above can quickly become annoying and they make the reader remember that they are reading, taking them out of the story.
They are also a sure fire way of TELLING the reader what the character is feeling, rather than SHOWING what s/he feels. (Take a look at this post for more on showing/telling.)
how can I make my tags invisible?
Some people say you should only ever use the word ‘said’, which is a bit like ‘and’. It is as close to invisible as possible.
I think it’s occasionally ok to use words like ‘answered’, ‘replied’, ‘shouted’ (if used sparingly – if everyone is shouting all the time it gets boring and looses it’s meaning), ‘whispered’ etc.
if I only use 'said' how will the reader know how my character is feeling?
It is better to SHOW how the reader is feeling by their actions or by the words they use.
Johnathon looked at the ground and kicked the dust. “Our house blew away in a tornado,” he said.
(Surely the adverb ‘sadly’ would be redundant?)
Janet’s foot slipped on the top step and she tumbled all the way to the bottom of the stairs. She lay there, stunned for a moment. She brushed away her tears and limped out into the garden to find mum.
“Whatever has happened to you?”
(I don’t think we need any tags, do you? We know who is talking and we can guess how they sound.)
Liam towered over me, his fist clenched in front of my face. “What are you, scared?”
I think we can get away without a tag here and Liam’s intentions are demonstrated in the action. (We don’t need an adverb like ‘menacingly’.)
I hope you have found this explanation of dialogue tags helpful.
Find out what makes good dialogue here.
See the ‘rules’ of dialogue here.
See my other helpful hints and tips here.
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