Dialogue Tags: The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly

Dialogue tags: we can’t really have a story without them… but are we using them well? I don’t mean our grammar or punctuation (though this post has some great pointers for that), but rather how we integrate tags in a way that’s smooth, skilful, and doesn’t disrupt the reader. This is, like most things (read: anything) to do with writing, an area in which, surprise surprise, lots of people have opinions. And, of course, it raises a lot of questions. 

I’ll start with the usual disclaimer: as with a great many other aspects of writing, there’s not strictly a ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way to do most things. (Except using apostrophes for plurals: we all know how I feel about that.) There are, however, some solid general guidelines worth considering when using dialogue in your writing. 

Wait wait — What are we even really talking about here? 

A dialogue tag is a small phrase that serves to tell the reader who is speaking. Also known as an ‘attribution’, a dialogue tag may appear before, after, or in the middle of the actual dialogue. 

Before: Jackie asked, ‘well, what’s the point?’ 

After: ‘Well, what’s the point?’ Jackie asked.

In the middle: ‘Well,’ Jackie asked, ‘what’s the point?’ 

In each of these examples, the phrase ‘Jackie asked’ is the dialogue tag. Okay, now that we’ve clarified that bit of information, let’s crack on to the real issue at hand: how best do we use them? 

The Case for Simple Dialogue Tags

In the interests of full disclosure: I used to be a fiend for using diverse dialogue tags. Every time someone spoke, they did it in a different way. Bob screamed, Ella groaned, Chaz whispered and Lily grumbled. It was fun for me, and I definitely thought I was giving the reader what they wanted/needed: information about how the characters were acting. 

But was I? Probably not. Why? 

Because, as Novel Writing Help notes here, dialogue tags are designed to be functional, not artistic. They’re about subtly providing the reader with vital information (who is speaking), but they shouldn’t take centre stage. 

The dialogue itself has to be our focus. 

Using other stylistic language, while fun, often serves to distract us from the dialogue itself, which should provide our main point of access for the characters’ thoughts and feelings. Enter the argument for simple dialogue tags, mostly comprised of ‘said’ and perhaps ‘asked’. Do we need anything more?

A better question might be… do we actually need a tag there at all? 

Be Stingy With Them

It’s worth considering if you need a dialogue tag at all to signpost the speaker. As Now Novel argues here, there are frequently times where you don’t need a dialogue tag at all: using an action can suffice. Or, in a short back and forth, you may not need tags at all. 

For example: 

I sighed and put a hand on Doug’s shoulder. ‘It just wasn’t meant to be, mate.’

‘I said, I don’t want to talk about it.’ 

‘Well, sure, but maybe you need to—ever thought about that?’

Not the snazziest bit of writing, but the point remains. We know who’s saying each bit, and we get a fairly clear idea of how they’re feeling about it at the time… but there are no dialogue tags in sight. Of course, it’s important to remember not to take this to the extreme. Twenty lines of back-and-forth dialogue without a tag in sight makes it nigh on impossible to keep a track of who’s talking. (Who hasn’t had to go back and count down the lines to make sure they’ve got the speaker right?) 

But, extremes aside, the short example above shows how you can clear out some deadwood from your work by choosing to minimise tags where they’re not necessary. How?

Well, like the first line demonstrates, perhaps giving the reader a little bit of action will serve to tell us who’s speaking. 

Using Action for and around Dialogue Tags

There’s a lot to be said for taking the opportunity of speech to tell us more about what’s going on in the story. Look at these two examples.

‘I’m just tired,’ Shona said. 

Shona shrugged and avoided my gaze. ‘I’m just tired,’ she said, forcing a smile.

In the first, all we can take away is that the character is tired. In the second, we probably infer that the character says she’s tired, but something more is afoot. This really just ties back into another version of ye olde’ favourite: show, don’t tell. 

We can also use dialogue tags and character actions together to give the reader a little more context. This also helps continue to build the story while characters are talking. 

‘Well,’ Chucky said, frowning as he wiped his oily hands on a rag, ‘you’re not wrong.’

Showing us what Chucky is doing allows us to transition more smoothly from one scene to the next without having to dump a whole heap of information on the reader before or after the dialogue. If actions are occurring during the dialogue (as they tend to in real life), we can gradually progress the story. 

So, it’s clear that I like characters to act as they talk, and I’m a fan of ‘said’. I’m not, however, saying you can never branch out. (After all, who doesn’t love a good ‘bellowed’?)

Diversifying Tags

One of the interesting facts about googling ‘dialogue tags’ is the number of infographics it brings up with alternatives to ‘said’. There are a lot.

And sometimes, you just can’t go past a short word or phrase that will tell the reader more about your character than otherwise possible. 

Can provide the reader: 

The tenor of the conversation between two (or more) characters (if it’s comfortable, tense or otherwise). 

The mental and/or emotional state of a character.

An insight into the nature of a relationship between various characters. 

Which are all pretty helpful pieces of information to build the scene for your reader! Used sparingly and with a bit of forethought, fun alternatives to said can add oomph to your writing and clue your reader in to things they might otherwise not know.

So, where does this leave us? As usual, there’s no real right or wrong way to use dialogue tags… but there are a few different methods which with you can experiment. Figure out what works best for you! Try a few different approaches and see if it changes your writing and how the difference sounds. If nothing else, constant experimentation in writing is what teaches us new things and takes us down new paths: so experiment!

Then let me know what you think!

–A.