Day 3 – 30 Days of Writing Advice – Dialogue Tags

 

DAY 3

This month of daily writing advice will include tidbits, tips, and sometimes tricks. This isn’t a replacement for editing or book coaching, it’s meant as a jumping off point for exploration and thought! I hope it helps! ~Amy

HE SAID, SHE SAID

You may not want to hear this, but 99% of the time, said and asked are the only dialogue tags you need.

Why oh why?

The point of dialogue tags are to indicated who’s talking. That’s it. Not a fancy purpose, a utilitarian one.

Words like remarked, continued, added, questioned, interrupted? They’re redundant. Your dialogue just by being your dialogue shows this, right? If someone interrupts, we know that.

So LET YOUR DIALOGUE DO THE WORK.

Use dialogue tags only to make it clear who’s speaking. Leave off the flowery tags.

Do words like whispered or yelled work sometimes? Sure, there might be no other way to indicate these things.

OR IS THERE?

See you tomorrow!

Amy xo

 

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