Action Tags! --- Do What?

From Sunday's post, Dialogue Tags! --- Say What, I was inspired to do a follow up post about action tags. Partially because I'd forgot to mention them in that post, and then a little bit because I realised that they bring on a whole importance of their own.





I'd love to give a lot of credit for this post to Donya Lynne, she said some really great stuff... even adding to the post:




"The only necessary dialogue tag is "said." The question mark implies the "asked," (so putting "he asked" is redundant) and when someone replies to a piece of dialogue, the "replied" is also implied, and, thus, redundant." - Donya's comment.




That made so much sense, and so I thought I needed to share it with you!




On with the post... so action tags are useful, and if you're not using them, then you ought to be!




Action tags might give detail to how a piece of dialogue is supposed to be said, so instead of using those HORRIBLE replacement words for "said" you might want to try using some action tags. Something else Donya said, because she actually inspired me so much!




"If I used any other word besides "said" as a dialogue tag, it means I am too lazy to turn that poser of a dialogue tag into a more descriptive action tag." - Donya's comment.




It's so true, and it makes me want to be a better writer! I'm going to try and cut ALL dialogue tags other than "said" from my writing... and hey, I'm learning as I go, just like everyone else! I hope this helps!




Example:




"Please can I have the last piece?" she said.

"No, I'm saving it, besides you've already ate two pieces already." Leah rolled her eyes.

"Why not? And who the hell are you saving it for?" Nancy frowned and then puffed her cheeks.

"Someone." Leah winked. 




I only used one dialogue tag here, and that was in the first line. Then for the next three sentences I use action tags, each showing some of the emotion in the character. So action tags are useful, so so useful, and not just for characterisation, but also because it makes everything a lot tidier (well, in my opinion it does).




But if you're wanting to just let the dialogue go fast and flow, use "said" because it's invisible, but if it's just a dialogue between two people and it's been established who's speaking then you could go without any tags at all.




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Are you going to cut ALL other words for "said"?

-Joseph




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