How to Properly Format Your Dialogue Tags
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ต.ค. 2024
- How do you properly format your dialogue tags? Not the sexiest topic but super relevant! I see a lot of people get this wrong, especially newer/more novice writers.
I'm talking about the literal grammar dos & don't of dialogue, as well as best practices for dialogue tags & action tags. Hint: you should use "said" 90% of the time! Please!
I should mention! I only mentioned "he/she/I said" but of course often you'll use character names. I neglected to mention you should be careful of using character names in dialogue tags too much: everything in moderation!
As promised, here are some additional concrete examples:
INCORRECT (comma placement):
“That’s not fair”, George said, looking distinctly uncomfortable.
CORRECT:
“That’s not fair,” George said, looking distinctly uncomfortable.
INCORRECT (action tag):
“Maybe I’ll confiscate your stash,” Jatinder waggled his eyebrows.
CORRECT:
“Maybe I’ll confiscate your stash.” Jatinder waggled his eyebrows.
Example of longer section of text with variation of dialogue tags & action (not that not every line has a tag):
“You’re the one who wanted to come to this thing,” I said, snatching the flask away so he would take a break.
“My uncle made me.” He leaned into me, body warm against mine. “That Mason guy is here for an inspection. He wants to ground us, which I’m all for, but the Captain insists on playing nice and begging for a few more years’ reprieve.”
“Maybe your uncle is right,” I said.
“You’re my date. You should agree with me.” He pouted, a bit drunk.
“We’re here as friends, remember? And if I were your date? I wouldn’t agree with you just to make you feel better.”
I was rewarded with a smile. “That’s why I like you, Stella.”
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''This video was super helpful,'' Lauren said, pressing the notification bell.
(I pray to God that was correct)
nailed it!
Damn good
Hahaha, I did the same thing.
Perfect🥰
@@heirofslytherin17 “mud blood or not I’m better than you are.” Macho man Randy savage said, flexing his already immodest muscles
When you are halfway through your book and you realize that you've done dialogue tags all wrong.
Nicole B - don’t worry there’ll be plenty of drafts to fix it (sobs internal)
Don't worry, you aren't alone.
Same 😳
@@NannaGal1231 you should see mine, I didn't even use the right format. Mine is like
Killua: Hi Gon how are you doing?
Gon: Good, wanna go to the park? *Sits down on bed*
Killua: Sure *grabs Killuas hand in his right hand and his bag in the other then starts walking to the park* I hope we see some geese.
Obviously that convo is completely random but I barley know how to use dialogue in general I'm worried ill do it wrong and scare away readers if I try... :( *I'm 14 btw*
@@juliettegallen8010 You'll get better!
My advice:
Read a lot. You'll pick up on the cadence of how a book should look and sound.
Listen to people talk. Try to incorporate slang (even your own) into your dialogue.
Write to please yourself first. Then worry about your reader.
Good luck!
3:40 it’s funny cuz in school we were taught to stray away from said cuz “it’s boring and doesn’t convey tone/meaning” (and for me seeing said all the time is really annoying) but here we have publishers being like “yeah no fuck that use said”
Thank you Alexa. Now I'm off to edit a 50k words document. Yay 😑😑
coisas lol, have fuuuunnn
Thank you! I'm legally blind so all my life I've mostly listened to audiobooks when it comes to fiction and hardly ever read print books. When I started writing a lot, I realized that I really had no idea how dialogue or paragraphs were supposed to look on the page. It was a very strange revelation for me.
I had someone recently say for dialogue that you shouldn't use "said/asked" almost at all, basically the whole "said is dead." Which is so twenty years ago. Instead she said to use action tags instead, which I understand can be a useful tool to mix it up. But again it's good to *mix* it up. Sprinkle in said here and there. Throw a dash of action tags. Mix it all together and you have a beautiful balance to portray a scene. (And no confusion to who is speaking.) Also the biggest thing is to know your genre. I have a friend writing a children's book. Children are clued in with "said" or "asked" to who is saying what. But this person (who wrote adult fiction) argued that she must change to an action tag it because "said is dead." She also said I could never use the following: "Yes," I hissed. (Which I see used in YA all the time.)
To summarize:
Know your genre.
Know what's acceptable in your genre.
Know what your audience needs.
Use said/asked.
Throw in action tags to mix it up.
Throw in "purple prose" for emphasis (like Alexa said so nicely in her video.)
One thing you didn't mention, which I see all over the place in fanfiction: if you're using a dialogue tag, you never end the character's spoken words with a period, for the same reason you don't capitalize the dialogue tag itself--it isn't the end of the sentence.
Wrong: "Here's a sentence." Said the man.
Right: "Here's a sentence," said the man.
Never say never. If the dialogue tag is at the beginning of the sentence, then you would put a period at the end of the character's spoken words. So: "The man said, "Here's a sentence."
^^^^^^ Just commenting to reinforce the commenter above me
@@marymintz9147 isn't it supposed to be
The man said, "Here's a sentence. "
@@Ambition4 it totally can be. For example, I said earlier today, “I forgot my wallet.”
Wanna trudge into colons, semi colons, and how/when to use different dashes? Everyone's favorite grammar subject! Lol Also- I would love to see you touch on hiring freelance editors once you are almost ready to start querying your novel. Thanks Alexa!
Yes! This can be especially handy for those who don't have English as a native language, as the use of those specific punctuation marks can differ wildly between languages.
I speak nigh exclusively in semicolon.
Self-published one of my first books full of improper dialogue tags a few years ago and had to go back, do a bunch more editing, and upload new versions of them lol. Lesson learned, but I still cringe looking back. 😂😩
Thanks for the video. Lately, I've been practicing 0 tags. It's been liberating and painful. I have had to rephrase dialogue to maintain clarity and readability. It's really forced me to grow and, dare I say, get better in my process. Time will tell, if that's true. Thanks, again.
Love the confidence, and how she isn't afraid to share her journeys and mistakes. She's great
This is really helpful, I've been confused about Dialogue Tags for a long time now.
question: what if I have a deaf character, would it be okay to place his dialogue inside the quotations and then use he signed? You know because he signed the dialogue with his hands.
Makes sense to me :)
"Thank you for this refresher!" I said.
I cannot share this enough. Thank you. May the writing Goddess bless you.
I’m only on chapter 9 in my book. Thank God I saw this video before getting too deep into my book. Looks like I’m going be rewriting a lot more than I originally thought.
Hi, my name is Christopher, I am english living in Bulgaria. This video was very helpful for me. So now I will have to go back on all of my 300 pages and correct it, hahaha. My I ask, concerning speech still, the spacing in between lines and separating different people when they speak. I have been putting down a new line when someone else speak. I also I have putting a blank space before the speech starts. I am a very creative person but words are at the bottom of my list when it comes to creativity, up until now that is. I am writing a romantic science fiction which has turned out to be quite funny in a country where a good expreso costs about 15 cents. Have a lovely day in these crazy times, Christopher.
I am so very guilty of adding actions as dialogue tags.
"Blah blah blah," he shrugged. But now i am making such an effort to change it "blah,blah,blah," he said with a shrug. 😂 thank you for this!
I loved the advice about action beats -- I'm not sure if a line of action is properly called a beat, but I've heard this term bandied around -- and I wish someone had pointed this out earlier, because it seems so obvious in hindsight but isn't so easy to intuit.
One thing you brought up that I'm seeing a lot though is this idea that said ought to be the dialogue tag you rely on most, and it throws me off, because that's very much not the norm in the vast majority of YA publications I've read. The books that jump immediately to mind are the Legacy of Apollo and the Shadow and Bone series. These books drown their dialogue tags with adverbs, and I expect a lot of avid readers pick up this practice by emulating books they grew up reading.
Personally, I think it's all about moderation. Leaning too heavily on using "said" is just as bad as having an excessive number of other dialogue tags. When used in excess, the former can be too bland and the latter distracting. For example, I took a look at the first chapter of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (first book within reach) and the dialogue tags were split evenly between "said" and other dialogue tags. I would be hard pressed to call J.K. Rowling an amateur writer. But this is still a great video and I've been binge watching your videos for a couple of days now. Your advice has been really insightful and I can't want to implement some of your tips when I write next! Thank you for this video! :)
The part where you talk about dialogue tags and action tags and the capitalisation involved there has just saved my writing. It's so simple yet, all this time, I struggled to realise why authors use , a lot at the end of dialogue and I just never made sense of it. This advice is going to have a huge impact on my writing, thank you so much for this and for all of your videos! I've only just found you but I'm in love with every video you put out there. Thanks again!
I have not seen anyone else talk about tagging at a "craft" level. I've got a few such, but mostly I see people talking about the habits of a writer, etc. So, thanks for putting this vid up. It is similar to my thoughts on tags.
I wrote a novel and am currently going through my final edits. Your videos are so insightful.
I have two requests for videos!
1. Can you do one discussing the different prose and what they mean/refer to?
2. I'd love to see one where you talk about your experience with your editor. What things did they take out? What should a new author expect from an editor? What feedback did they give?
This was a very helpful. Thank you! If I had only paid attention 30 years ago in high school. You are an excellent teacher. Keep up the great work. Thanks for the video.
Thank you Alexa. I’ve just added dialogue and action tags to my style guide. Looking forward to my next self edit pass because of this video.
I really enjoy your information! I often describe an emotion that a character is feeling just before their dialogue begins. I try not to use tags in two way conversations if at all possible. You are very good at teaching. Thank you.
Great video! I was really interested to know if you always have to inform the reader of who is talking. Every writer seems to apply their own volume of tags and now it makes sense. I am so happy to have watched this great video and Alexa you come across very well. Thank you
We learnt this in my writing class in highschool, probably the best class EVER
I have a terrible problem with overuse (and probably improper use) of hyphens. I would love a video about hyphens and dashes!
So the sentence *"Come on, guys." He called out.* should instead be *"Come on, guys," he called out.* Yes?
Is *"I can prove it. Deal?" He held out his hand.* wrong? Should it be *"I can prove it. Deal?" he said holding out his hand.* instead?
(P.S. Did I use the punctuation correctly in that last example?)
You nailed it! These two are correct:
"Come on, guys," he called out.
"I can prove it. Deal?" He held out his hand.
The last one is correct, if you want to do it that way, as well.
Oh, thanks. I wasn't expecting you to answer on an old video, and I frankly thought that other people might not answer.
But thanks for that. Big help.
@@AlexaDonne So is it commas before dialogue tags and full stops before action tags?
What do about a question mark followed by regular dialogue tag?
Yes.
Both are correct. :)
this is saving me cumulative weeks of anxiousness! Now all that's left is to figure out how to write action in the middle of a sentence of dialogue..
“It’s not a boring subject,” he said. “I find it very useful.”
I wrote my BA thesis about dialogue tags in English and Polish (my native language). Found out these two languages have a whole different style of writing dialogues, in Poland we use dashes instead of quotation marks, and we cannot use "said" all the time, because the reader would be like "geez, how many times can you use the same word on the same page, it's so annoying", and it would be considered excessive repetition, so it doesn't apply to all languages and I was quite surprised when I realised it.
Please demonstrate the way Polish writers create dialog.
What SanityOne said! I'm so curious!
@@onewaytosavetheday I'll give you an example then. In Egnlish we would write a dialogue like this:
"Hi, honey, " asked Johnny, "how was your day?"
"Oh, nothing interesting, really."
While in Polish we indicate dialogue with dashes, which helps us differentiate between the speech and the narrative:
Let's say there's some narrative here. It has no quotation marks, or dashes, or anything.
- Cześć, kochanie - zapytał Jan - Jak ci minął dzień?
- Ah, normalnie, nic ciekawego.
And here we go on with another portion of narration...
@@topik801 That is truly fascinating! Thank you for sharing that piece of information :)
@@topik801 And yet again I have to face it, Hungarian and Polish are dangerously similar. (Yet way too different when I try to form a sentence. XD)
Love the craft videos, they help me see where I bug thing up and helps take the intimidation out of the writing process.
I have only recently started writing and I new mostly the basics to it so I found this video the most helpful compared to others I have watched. I am now going to watch the rest of your videos so thank you so much for helping me! 🙏
"I learned it on the streets, writing fanfiction"
-Everybody
ALSO
It's just hard to learn the right way when you read a lot of fanfiction where they make these mistakes :/
Thank you so much for your video's, I'm seeing so many things I do wrong in which I can improve
can we talk about our buddy the semicolon ;
Yes, please, Alexa
We can talk about your colon . . .
He's no friend of mine!
"Grammars not that sexy," she said enthusiatically 😂😂 Great video though, I see so many writers make these same mistakes!
Grammar's **
Oh my gosh, thank you so much for this! I know this is a few years old, but this is the kind of information needed so badly to be a good writer. I am always looking for tips for writing, but it's always the same old general stuff.
Been binge watching your videos. Super helpful. I suck at writing.
I realize this video is a couple years old by the time I'm watching this (binge-watching/listening lately), so you might have a video about this already that I've not come upon yet, but I struggle with passive/active voice so much! I swear, it is my Achilles' heel. If you have done one about this already, I will be getting to it eventually, and if not, oh please, for the love of all that is grammar-holy, HELP ME!
Thank you! Very simple explanation and perfectly summed.
I heard the advice in my major (Creative Writing) about the use of said just yesterday and I'm seriously torn up about it. On one hand, I get it, but I also had that beaten out of me going through school, so I settled for showing expression in my dialogue through actions/action-based things, but apparently that's *also* wrong...
Makes me want to give up tbh
I'd like advice on dialogue tags and other challenges that come when there are potentially more than two people who could be speaking.
I had literally never had this explained to me before. Thank you so much, Alexa!!
One of my biggest reasons why i use other verbs besides said was that my English teachers would berate and penalize us if we used said too often in a piece of fiction. I remember the handouts of 100 different ways to say said
Someone send this video to James Patterson.
He tells fun stories, but dang... why can't Alex Cross just SAY something once in a while. It's a bit hard to take him seriously as this low-key gritty detective when he's always exclaiming, growling, etc.
THANK YOU for this video! Gotta correct my action tags now
For actions with dialogue tags, is it okay if the act DOES directly relate to what’s being said? Like, a pickup line and a playful gesture or something similar to that? I know you probably won’t see this considering it’s a relatively old video, but I’d appreciate any advice on this topic
Best explanation I've watched so far. How about a video on placement versus the storyline. I almost couldn't finish your video. The audio was extremely scratchy in several parts. Probably just your microphone causing the static.
Excellent. You expressed everything exemplarily! Thank you, Alexa.
This is sooooooooooo helpful, I always wondered about this. I actually vocally asked other aspiring writers about this too. I remember saying something like, "...but 'he said, ,she said, we said, they said...' sounds so repetitive, is it really okay to ALWAYS use said?" The friend said something similar to you. Well, she didn't explained it in full length detail, she just said simply using "said" is totally fine. She didn't go into detail, and I was a bit skeptical because she didn't give me a reason. :-P Now I know she was right~ Sorry, friend!
I also wondered about the other stuff about dialogue in creative writing, so you'r video was sooooooo incredibly helpful, like I thought about this every time I try to write dialogue in projects. I've honestly asked myself what to do on like most of the things you covered on this video, like was really incredibly helpful. Thank you, Alexa.
Very helpful, Alexa. Thanks so much!
wow the said thing hits home. I always learned to use strong verbs and that said was a 'banned' verb.
Thank you so much for this video. It's been a huge help :) I'll be saying "said" in my sleep, lol.
You are such a great resource!
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! I'm trying to get a job as a novel editor but since I don't particularly read novels I'm pretty blind at this. And after studying stuff through Google I find the pattern but still found it confusing, you helped so much!!
"You are the best!" I said, emphatically.
I would like to thank u for making these videos! I always want to try to better my writing and I find these words very helpful and will remember these things when writing :)
This is confusing because apparently literature has different rules in different languages... In Finnish every book I read the comma is outside the quotation marks, the ""words", she said" thing. I've been taught to write fiction that way throughout my school years :''D it's like:
"Words?" she said
"Words!" she said
"Words", she said
I think a teacher once said that while exclamation and question marks are parts of the actual dialogue that affect the way it's said they're inside quotations, but a comma is not a proper way to end a sentence and doesn't affect what the character says it's outside only for the reader. Or something like that. But I guess it's just different.
I've always thought that was more logical, too. Sadly, it's not the convention and everyone's now used to seeing the comma inside the quotation marks. I'm doubly confused because most writing tips videos are from the USA, and I'm British - so I often find it hard to decide whether my sense that something isn't correct stems from my British education, or from straightforward ignorance! I've just ordered a British style guide (New Hart's Rules) so that I can consult it in future and find out what's recommended in my own culture.
Lmao when she said "you did it" it hit hard man
This is something I need help with dialogue tags that I can't get anywhere, I do and understand everything else. Anyones reply would be helpful.
Say I have a dialougle tag that ends on a period/question, is the next word outside the dialogue tag capitalised or does the dialogue tag remain with the sentence?
For example is it: She plucks an apple from the bowl, "apples make fine snacks." She said.
Or is it: She plucks an apple from the bowl, "apples make fine snacks." she said.
Hi, friend! That is a tricky sentence. Your best edit would probably be to split the entire sentence into two separate sentences.
She plucks an apple from the bowl.
"Apples make fine snacks," she says.
Also, be careful with your tense switching. You go from present to past in that sentence, as well. Good luck!
@@samstokes3693Thank you! I've been doing this anyway, avoiding the issue completely. It's nice to know my issue was just as tricky as I thought. Thanks anyway!
In my stories, I try to AVOID having too MANY characters speaking in a conversation at once! Hey, that even CONFUSES me! At MOST, I'll only have THREE characters carrying on a conversation at once. For ME, TOO MANY speakers in the same conversation just gets CONFUSING!
You’re excellent! Thank you. 💖
When I started writing, I just wrote and later I checked in the book I was currently writing, and how they had done the dialogue and dialogue tags. I did the same. :) What I did and still sometimes do "wrong" is that I overuse tags. I have a tendency to say who said what all the time, even if it's not needed. Then I have to remove it in editing. XD
Thank you for making this video Alexa. I think I'm finally starting to get this.
Answered so many questions. Thank you!
Hey Alexa, how ya doin'? Fine, I hope. When I write my character dialogue, I something use the tags 'she asked' ; 'he exclaimed', 'she whispered' or 'he shouted'. Isn't that alright? I think those types of dialogue tags express the characters' emotions. Don't dialogue tags like those ENRICH the storytelling experience? Don't we, as writers wanna FULLY EXPRESS the emotion of our characters? I certainly imagine so!
"I say a comma is NOT needed after the parentheses (nor later after the word 'adding')" he said, adding "because the quotation marks already indicate the dialog is separate from the dialog tag."
Very helpful, and thank you.
@3:31 Hahahahaha! For the first option, I certainly hope not! That would not work well for dialogue. :)
I'd like to know your take on using colons before dialogue in place of commas. When it's okay, if it's okay, etc. For example: He said: "This sucks."
this video was from 4 years ago, so I hope you still see this and respond to it. Can you please do a video with speakers speaking in complex sentences with punctuations, quotations, and dialogue tags?
Thanks for this video.
What's your advice on formatting dialog in text messages?
I use italics instead of quotes. If there's a tag, it's placed before the message to introduce it. The dialog is also placed on it's own paragraph. I sometimes break up the dialog with "thought tags" and "action tags". I'm still debating on the use of emojis 🤔
I feel there's no consensus on what the best practices should be. How would you format a text message in a novel?
You're amazing thank you. I probably would have made way more mistakes if it wasn't for any of your videos
super cool! thank you!!
Thanks for sharing! I now need to revisit 4 novels and 20 short stories and novellas because of action tags. F***. lol Seriously, really helpful to know. Thanks 😁
This was very helpful.
Loved this video! Super helpful. Thank you!
Hi! Nice explanation of the proper use of dialogue tags. It was good to hear that my gut feeling was already telling me the right things :) I do have two questions. First, do dialogue tags work the same way when you’re not writing in the past tense? I use the present tense to give my reader a stronger feeling of ‘being in the moment’ and action, but when use ‘he says’ a lot, it kind of feels like I’m slowing down the pace a bit. Or is that just my over awareness as writer getting in the way? Second, do you have any advice on how to correctly use the description of facial expressions as action sentences? To me, natural dialogue should include quite some non-verbal communication because in real life, 80% or more of our communication is non-verbal as well. However, I can get trapped in this place where I use frowns, squinted eyes and wrinkled noses every other sentence and it becomes predictable and distracting from what is being said or done in the scene.
Thanks, I was today damn worried about *"said"*
I like when Jim Butcher does it. I actually loooove it.
But when Abercrombie does it in his books, I react to it at once. I think Jim uses it so well, as it adds to his efficient writing style. But when Abercrombie does it, he is in addition spending a lot of words on voice and the added tags seems excessive or too imploring.
Love this....I'm good with the commas but Im struggling with those pesky dialogue tags. Right at this moment, I'm editing out as many as I can. But I don't know what to do with the words that comes after....he said/she said.
Thanks Alexa
I love you so much for these videos!
Thank you so much, this has been extremely helpful!
Thank you so much! finally! this is clarified for me!!!
Thank you for these lessons. I would need to learn more on how and when to indent a paragraph. Is it connected to what is told in the paragraph, for example if the paragraph considered complete in his telling objective? If so it is not easy to determine if another sentence should be the end of a paragraph or should be considered the beginning of a new indented paragraph.
I get confused when I have dialogue-action-dialog with the same speaker know when a new paragraph is necessary. I don’t think a new paragraph is needed for every line of dialogue but I can’t really intuit when it is needed.
excellent video thank you
i just always tell myself to never put punctuation after the quotation mark
BIG Question! "Are you dancing tonight?" He said.
"He" must be capitalized because of the question mark?
Thank you in advance Alexa.
He is asking a question here, so instead of "said", you can use "asked"/"questioned" and "He" shouldn't be capitalized because it is not an action tag because he is directly asking the question and not doing some other "action" after asking the question. Question mark also comes under "punctuation marks" like comma and exclamation mark, so the rules Alexa mentioned in the video apply to the question marks too.
I am on the young side of the scale and was taught in school to use dialogue tags in writing. They never told us we could choose not to use a dialogue tag. At first I was like what is she talking about action tags, you have to use a dialogue tag every time, then I looked it up. I felt so under taught.
I’m curious about how to correctly write internal thoughts. Said doesn’t feel right because it can be mistaken for out loud but thought doesn’t feel right either. It feels like telling but how do you show a thought without saying something like, hand to chin, scratching head or some action depicting the thought is happening rather than a verbal conversation with an empty room?
I stood up, “time for work.” I thought, heading out the door.
I stood up, “time for work.” I said, heading out the door.
Hi Alexa. I'm so glad that you did this video. Here's my question. Can I do this when
someone is crying and yelling because someone has died.
"Noooooooo! Noooooooo!" she cried.
or
"Help meeeeeeeee!" he begged.
Is this okay?
@D Frazier thank you!
Thank you!!🌞
I have a an idea for a novel however I suck when it comes to grammar. What is the best way to get over this stumbling block?
7:45 idk if you’ll mention this, but, alternatively:
“Well, that’s awful;” she got up from her chair. Semi colons are useful, but I don’t recommend doing this all the time lol. Like once per chapter or something is good.
Sebastian Sean Crow - I never use semicolons in dialogue. Semicolons are for abstract structuring between multiple interconnected statements. For dialogue, a speaker tends towards simple punctuation or, when emphasizing a connection, a dash. Using a semicolon to connect dialogue to its tag just reminds me that someone sat at a keyboard to type what I’m reading.
Hey, she said you don't need tags if it's just two people, but HOW?? Like
"I know you!" he said "No you don't," she answered "you're confused." "No, I'm not. I'm sure I've seen you before." "I certainly don't know you, so you must be crazy!"
Something like that??
Thank-you for this video Alexa! I feel a lot better than I did about my dialogue tags. I had the feeling I was doing them wrong, but it seems I'm doing alright. I think I'm still doing something not quite right but I'm not sure how to explain it. ^_^;;
Hayley :)