He Said, She Said: Dialog Tags and Using Them Effectively

He Said, She Said: Dialog Tags and Using Them Effectively:

writeworld:

By D.M. Johnson

The Good, The Bad, and The Obvious

In basic terms, dialogue tags (or speech tags) are like signposts, attributing written dialogue to characters. Dialogue tags don’t need to be fancy, splashy, or self-conscious. Their primary purpose is to show which characters speak and when. The greater the number of characters involved in a scene, the more important the frequency and positioning of tags becomes.

Each tag c...