Writing Theory: Dialogue Tags

Hey, everyone. So, let's talk about writing. This week's topic is dialogue tags.

I know it may sound a bit queer, but when it comes to the craft of writing, the technical aspects as well as the art and philosophy can drive some writers crazy as they think about how a sentence or phrase should be constructed. For whatever reason, you forget your basic grammar and English lessons, and start making things up as you go along. Places that you used to throw commas in every time you saw them are now comma-less. Other times, places that don't seem to need commas have them all over the place. You convince yourself that commas are needed. And then you begin to find new uses for a colon or semi-colon. It can get quite confusing. That's one of the reasons why it's so important to read stuff that isn't by you so you don't get stuck in your echo chamber of absurdity.

But, I don't want to talk about punctuation. Generally, the rules for punctuation are pretty stout and going over a quick tips blog or pin on Pinterest is all that's needed to straighten you out. No. This week, I want to talk about dialogue tags. Why? Well, I was editing my upcoming book Heroes of Majestia: The Company of Flight, and I began to see some things differently with regards to the dialogue tags. I started seeing things that I'm not entirely sure of whether or not they're there.

Now, generally, there are some good guidelines for dialogue tags, such as don't be redundant:

"Don't do that!" he shouted.

In this sentence, there's no need to specify "shouted" because the context or the situation as well as the phrase itself tells us that he is shouting. Advice from Stephen King in his book On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft (get it here) says to only stick to he said, she said. I will agree that this makes sense when the context of the situation is understood. There's no need to say someone is saying something excitedly if there's an exclamation mark at the end of the sentence and the character is bouncing up and down in the scene. But, with regards to redundancy, what about when a new character speaks?

"Is that dynamite?" asked Ted.
"Yes," replied Fred. "I'm going to drop a match on it."
"No, don't!" shouted Sally.

In the above scenario, it makes sense for Sally to say what she does, but here's the question: should it read "No, don't!" said Sally? To be honest, that sounds strange to me. Given the emotion of the scene, it makes sense to say she shouted. Not to mention, a new character is introduced in that sentence, or a new character is speaking. If it were Ted saying, "No, don't!" we could ignore a dialogue tag. So, where does that leave us?

Well, I think the way it's written in the example is the best way to do it. It conveys the emotion of the scene and serves a double purpose by introducing Sally. Now, some people may argue it would be better if that scene was written like this:

 "Is that dynamite?" asked Ted.
"Yes," replied Fred. "I'm going to drop a match on it."
Sally rushed forward and snatched the match from Fred. "No, don't!"

I will admit, that does add a bit of flavor and does do away with the redundancy, but as many of you (writers) are aware, you will come across times when it isn't appropriate to add the extra action and flavor. But overall, it is better.

But, what I really wanted to talk about with regards to dialogue tags is the verb subject order. For instance, should it be Daven asked or asked Daven?

"Should I go, too?" asked Daven.

"Should I go, too?" Daven asked.

Now, they convey the same information, but I think there's a slight contextual difference, and I'm not too sure how to describe it, but I'll try.

In the first example, that's the simple as you like it version. It would be acceptable in all possible contexts, no questions asked. But in the second example, it sort of feels like Daven interrupted or like him asking a question is an added bit. It isn't necessary for Daven to ask that question--his part wasn't even considered in the scenario.

I think what it comes down to is if you were to list every part of the sentence from most important to least important, the most important would obviously be the dialogue. I mean, it does come first in the sentence and without it, Daven and asked are completely unnecessary. But when you come to what's the second most important, this is where things get tricky. What's more important: that a question is being asked by Daven, or that Daven is the one asking the question? That's why I say the second example sounds like Daven is interrupting because since his name comes before the verb, the focus is more on him than the fact he asked a question. That makes sense to me.

Moving on, there was one other thing I wanted to cover and that was when a dialogue tag precedes the dialogue.

Daven asked, "Should I go, too?"

And the question is, is this scenario any different from the ones above? Because here it seems like the emphasis, the most important aspect to this bit of dialogue, is that Daven asked this question. That's all well and good, but when I came across a bit like this in my writing, it didn't sound right to me, and I'm not too sure why. I think it had something to with the fact that I decided to change the order of the sentence because every bit of dialogue before that had had the same order. It was dialogue, then dialogue tag, if it was needed. So, I mixed it up changing it to dialogue tag then dialogue. And I think that's why it didn't feel right--because it wasn't necessary.

Another issue with it is that since the emphasis is placed on the character and not the line of dialogue, it seems to suggest that there's something important about the fact that the character said this, like it's an interruption, important to the plot, or it signifies that Daven hasn't spoken in a while, as if we need to be reminded he's there. And I think that was what really bothered me about it--the character who started off the sentence didn't need to remind the audience he was there as there were only four characters in the scene and he last spoke not too long ago.

So, what can we conclude?

1. When it comes to dialogue tags, don't be redundant,

"Don't do it!" he shouted.
"What is that?" she asked.

2. It's almost acceptable to do that when a new character enters, but it's better if there's some sort of action to accompany their dialogue (remember: show, don't tell),

"Do you like it?"
Ralph threw it at the wall where it shattered. "No! I don't like it!"

3. The order of a line of dialogue and dialogue tag all depends on what is more important: the dialogue itself or the character who said it.

"Therefore, we're going to need a sheep," said Jeremy.

Sarah spoke up, "Only I can do it."

So, hopefully that gives you all a little bit of insight into using dialogue tags. If you think I'm way of base or that I missed something, feel free to tell me in the comments below. But, if you think this helped you, please consider joining my mailing list here so you can keep getting helpful tips like this. Everyone who signs up will get my How to Outline Your Novel cheat sheet. And if you really like what I'm banging on about, please consider becoming my patron on Patreon.

Keep writing my friends.

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