Dialogue Tags in Writing (With Examples!)

[@MichelleSchustermanAuthor]

What'd I miss? Anything else about dialogue tags you find confusing?

[@ruaks4323]

Hello, I've been stuck on one type of dialogue and I'm not sure how to go about it. I understand the difference in action and dialogue tags but how do half-sentences work? "You know," she said, tapping her hand on the table, "He is always grumpy in the morning." The /you know/ part of this sentence is half a sentence, it in itself is not a complete sentence, so should I capitalise the /he/ or leave it lowercase? 1. "You know," she said, tapping her hand on the table. "He is always grumpy in the morning." 2. "You know," she said, tapping her hand on the table, "He's always grumpy in the morning." 3. "You know," she said, tapping her hand on the table, "he's always grumpy in the morning." I don't know which is the correct one when your first dialogue is an incomplete sentence and it's separated by an action in the middle. Thank you!

[@MichelleSchustermanAuthor]

@@ruaks4323 Excellent question! In your example, #3 is correct because "You know, he's always grumpy in the morning" is one sentence. If it were two sentences, you would need a period and capitalization. "You know what?" she said, tapping her hand on the table. "He's always grumpy in the morning."

[@ruaks4323]

@@MichelleSchustermanAuthor that makes sense! thank you so much!!

[@learnENGLISHwithdebi]

GREAT VIDEO! Very helpful. Is there ever a reason to use all CAPS when writing? :)

[@RamssesPharaoh]

Michelle, we'll be forever grateful for all your contributions to helping writers understand and improve their craft. I'm grateful for your teaching style.

[@loveswords2000]

This is the basic every new writer needs! Thank you!

[@Iwasonceanonionwithnolayers]

I've been getting mixed answers for whether she said is capitalized. Totally needed this!

[@MichelleSchustermanAuthor]

So glad this was helpful, Vicky! :)

[@jpch8814]

Another thing to fix when editing 😵. Thank you, Michelle.

[@MichelleSchustermanAuthor]

Happy to help! Thanks for watching, JP!

[@asrgelpi_author]

I wish I had found this video in November 2020! Best video explaining the science of dialogue tags WITH EXAMPLES! So, subscribed now.

[@MichelleSchustermanAuthor]

So happy this was helpful! :) Thanks for watching!

[@BillZebubproductions]

Thank you for this. When I read, I am almost never aware of dialogue tags, which means that the writing is good. However, when I write dialogue, the tags seem to glaringly stick out. They seem too basic. But that might be the same as thinking that I am having a bad hair day, when others see nothing different in my appearance.

[@ruaks4323]

I come back to this regular because it’s the best dialogue tagging example and it’s so clearly explained. Thank you, wouldn’t mind a few more videos on this topic if you have the time, thank you

[@MichelleSchustermanAuthor]

Wow, thank you so much for letting me know! I'm so glad it was helpful, and I do have more dialogue video ideas on the list! :)

[@ruaks4323]

@@MichelleSchustermanAuthor I shall go find and watch them, dialogue tags are haunting me ahaha, thank you!

[@DuaneStanley]

Thank You, Loved the video!

[@MichelleSchustermanAuthor]

Glad you enjoyed it, Duane! :)

[@WriterMarkusRegius]

Great advice, like always! I want to add a reminder to bilingual writers that some of these rules vary between languages, especially the punctuation, so don't forget to look that up in your own language! In Swedish, for example, the comma goes after the citation mark ("like this", he said), and I've seen a lot of people get that wrong because the rules differ in different languages :) I also have a question, just out of curiosity. In English, do you ever write dialogue with - instead of "? -Like this, he said. It's fairly common in Swedish literature, and I hate it because you can't tell where the dialogue ends and the tags and descriptions begin 😂

[@MichelleSchustermanAuthor]

ohhh great note - thank you, Markus! And wow, no, I've never seen a hyphen in place of a quotation mark! That's really interesting. And yeah, I can see how it would be confusing for sure!!

[@WriterMarkusRegius]

@@MichelleSchustermanAuthor I'm glad the hyphens (thank you, I couldn't for the life of me remember the term) isn't something you have to deal with in English X) Luckily it's getting more and more rare in Swedish as well, one of the few places where I appreciate the influence the English language has on Swedish ;)

[@ran_loona]

I've been struggling with dialogue punctuation for years and you explained it so well in just a few minutes! Thank you so much 😊

[@MichelleSchustermanAuthor]

You're very welcome! I'm so glad this was helpful! :D

[@merriberri845]

I think using the "creative" dialogue tags tend to make characters seem much more melodramatic than intended. When people speak it's rarely so expressive through the voice alone. Most emotions are conveyed in the little details and context.

[@BloodDrippnFlowers]

Very interesting and clearly explained, it can get confusing

[@williefilmore5836]

Great lesson 👌. It's those little things that make reading flow easier and more of a pro format.

[@MissyLaMotte]

Thank you. This is really the most helpful and complete video I ever saw on this. I am a German writer currently writing my first novel manuscript in English and the subtle differences between the use of punctuation in dialogue tags in those two languages has been driving me crazy (German did change it's dialogue tag punctuation rules a few years back which even added to my confusion). I use "whispered" a lot, but only because one of my protagonists has damaged vocal cords, so whispering is really all he can manage. I usually use "whispered" when one of my other characters hear him talk, especially for the first time or when it is hard to understand what he says and "said" when we are in his POV. But I think I am guilty of using "whispered" in a few cases with other characters when "said softly" or "quietly" is probably the better choice. I'll keep that in mind when editing. Oh, and one thing you maybe could add if you ever do a follow up video is the use of line breaks to set the speakers apart. I find this clear and obvious as long as it is just direct speech + dialogue tag, but sometimes more muddy when action tags come in.

[@MichelleSchustermanAuthor]

I'm so happy this helped, Missy! That is a VERY good reason to use "whispered" a lot. And thank you for the request! I've had a few other questions about this topic so I'll add them all to my list of potential future videos. :)

[@eunicefazzi6697]

I get these rules confused all the time. Thank you for this video! I also appreciate the advice regarding the use of “whisper” 😅 I think I’m guilty of doing that

[@MichelleSchustermanAuthor]

Thanks so much, Eunice! I am SO guilty of using whispered for the wrong reasons. That was eye-opening for me when my friend mentioned it!

[@BarrettLaurie]

I love your content. Literally been fixing dialogue tags. It’s like you read my mind. This, with the examples, is exactly what I have been asking the universe for! The Secret is real!! 😂🤣 Thanks as always for keeping us from looking like amateurs!

[@MichelleSchustermanAuthor]

Thank you so much, Barrett! ROFL ask the universe for dialogue tag help, and it will deliver 😂

[@romaeisenstark3068]

Thanks for this! It was really helpful.

[@ilolatmyself12]

Thank you for blessing us with this content!! I get so many clients through my editing service who struggle with all these aspects of dialogue tags, so it’s super helpful to have this video I can send them for an in-depth breakdown! One thing I also often see is under-using dialogue tags, especially in scenes with 3 or more characters. It can get very confusing.

[@MichelleSchustermanAuthor]

Thank you so much, Susy! I really appreciate that. :) And yes, it seems that underwriting and overwriting in general are big issues, especially with newer writers! (It really does get confusing fast with 3+ characters.)

[@johnterpack3940]

The one thing really holding me back from finishing any project is my perfectionism. I can't get into the mindset of writing a garbage first draft and then fixing it later. The idea of putting dialog tags everywhere makes perfect sense. But it also makes my skin crawl.

[@sheamckeown7238]

Thank you so much for this, Michelle! This is something I always have to google to double check...it’s so nice to have everything clearly presented in one place! Your videos have been so helpful as I’ve finally gotten into writing this year. I can’t thank you enough!

[@MichelleSchustermanAuthor]

Thanks so much for watching, Shea! I'm so glad these vids are helping!! :)

[@caroline-fortheloveofwords9706]

I found this very helpful thank you xx

[@MichelleSchustermanAuthor]

I'm so glad! Thanks for watching! :)

[@davidlowe7217]

Thanks. Much appreciated.

[@MichelleSchustermanAuthor]

Thanks for watching, David!

[@corkandi]

This is good advice and just what I needed. So many grey areas for newbie writers like me. When a character ask a question. Is it okay to use...he replied, instead of said? I've subscribed.

[@johnparnham5945]

This is very useful.

[@MichelleSchustermanAuthor]

Glad it was helpful!

[@lindsayribar9107]

You poetic, noble land mermaid.

[@MichelleSchustermanAuthor]

😂😂😂

[@jane.simplywrites]

Excellent video, Michelle!! The use of comma vs period. This would confuse me sometimes. Thank you for the examples! I took notes 📝. 😁

[@MichelleSchustermanAuthor]

Thank you so much, J! I'm so happy this helped!! :D

[@kanashiiookami6537]

😅 I'm guilty of most of these. (Except for only sparing use of tags beyond the standard said/asked/called) That first one of full stops and commas always throws me, as does when to capitalise words following dialogue. Because, at least for the first bit, I've seen published works where they don't seem to follow that rule (despite the 'style guide' agents and publishing houses point authors toward for their editing) But laughed, sighed, yawn, smile, things like that? We do all of those while speaking. It may make certain words a bit hard to understand, especially when it comes to laughing. (Have you heard a joke being told by someone who is dying from the punchline they haven't even got to telling you yet?😂) so I do prefer to keep those as tags, unless the person is specifically laughing or whatnot *after* they said their bit. So if it's one of those that would make the dialogue hard to understand in real life, I make sure to have a character mention that they didn't catch x bit. The one that gets me miffed, though, is how many writing books tell you "nobody can smile dialogue/you can't *hear* a smile" when you can and do. Anyway, my question is: isn't adding a comma after dialogue more like a "but I'm not done yet" reminder that there's more dialogue to go? Or have I misunderstood it this whole time. Also, when you write something "like this," but aren't finished with the dialogue "Do you capitalise this continued portion or not?" Considering said bit of dialogue, when written without any breaks, wouldn't be separated with punctuation beyond commas??? It's the one thing I've never really been sure of.

[@MichelleSchustermanAuthor]

Thanks K! I've seen plenty of published novels break the rules, too! It really adds to the confusion, doesn't it? FWIW, I do think "smile" isn't technically correct for a tag, because you CAN hear if someone is smiling when they speak, but smile itself isn't a 'speaking' verb. In those cases, I'd write something like "Marie could hear the smile in Bill's voice." That is a REALLY good question - and honestly, I kind of want to check with a copyeditor to see if I'm right here. But I believe it would look like this: "This is an example," she said, "of a tag in the middle of a sentence." So a comma after the tag, and lowercase for the continuing line.

[@kanashiiookami6537]

@@MichelleSchustermanAuthor that's what I was thinking, but I'm never 100% sure. And yeah, I guess I get what you mean about the smile thing. It's just a pet peeve of mine, especially after one author said it was impossible to hear someone smile. 🤷 Anyway, thank you for answering my question. And I hope your writing goes well today. Thank you for the video! (It'll be great to have during edits!😅)

[@MichelleSchustermanAuthor]

@@kanashiiookami6537 Definitely not impossible to hear it! I love when I'm listening to an audiobook and I can hear the narrator smiling. :) Thank you (as always) for watching, K! I hope you have a great writing week!

[@kittenlou3742]

Thank you so much :)

[@shumon375]

Amazing effort. You basically covered all the basics. 😏 I always wondered why authors like martin, rothfuss, sanderson writes 'quietly' as a tag. Now I know why. But I am a little bit confused about whisper. Forget about a busy place, say they are in a quiet place. Now, is it okay to use 'whisper' as a tag?

[@MichelleSchustermanAuthor]

Thanks Asraful!! Yeah, I think it's completely fine to use 'whisper' in a tag in that situation, as long as you actually want the character to whisper, not just speak softly!

[@shumon375]

@@MichelleSchustermanAuthor I have more confusion. As far as I know from the definition, Dialogue is how the characters of a book, movie, show etc talk with each other. Therefore shouldn’t be mixed with everyday speech. The courses I took also said the same and told that dialogue and everyday speech isn't the same. Since I am not a native english speaker, can't tell whether there are differences between a fictional characters dialogue and a normal persons speech, and also to what extend it looks normal on book and what seems abnormal. Maybe its a stupid question, but as English doesn’t have so many colloquial form, and different states of USA or Britain doesn’t speak so different forms that it seems almost a different language, maybe It's not an issue for english speakers. But why I've asked the question is because where I live. Here people don't actually speak the original form of 'Bangla', but a derivative form as everyday language. The actual form sustains itself only in media and books, and the rate is dwindling. Also here people have almost 50+ different colloquial which seems completely different from our state language. As I understand it, if you write a book, your default language should be the pure form of your mother tongue, with some colloquialism here and there to add sense of realism. The trouble is, readers here claim that dialogues should be like the colloquial one, everyday speech. And authors oblige. What should I do? Am I wrong here? Or the majority claim is so wrong that it eventually started to seem right? Please help me out on this.

[@MichelleSchustermanAuthor]

That's a great question! I think the most important thing to remember is for dialogue to sound as natural as possible. That means, for example, most characters (unless they speak very formally) will use contractions (ie, "can't" instead of "can not"). However, I think some courses are probably discouraging everyday speech for a few reasons: 1. Filler words can get overwhelming. We use a lot of them ("um," "so," "anyway") in our daily speech but they just clutter up the dialogue if you use too many. 2. Slang often sounds forced in dialogue and can also date the book, which you may or may not want. 3. Attempting to show accents in dialogue can just make it confusing to read. I've seen that criticism of Hagrid's dialogue in the Harry Potter books. So, as you stated: "if you write a book, your default language should be the pure form of your mother tongue, with some colloquialism here and there to add sense of realism." That's correct, in my opinion!

[@shumon375]

@@MichelleSchustermanAuthor Thank you so much! It means a lot to me.

[@rhondahoward8025]

Okay, I'm guilty of "tag redundancy", mistake number 2. Most recently, I did a " 'Shit!' She swore' " thing. I was trying to emphasize that it's shocking for this character to be swearing because they're supposed to be a five-year-old but now I see that the tag redundancy was a mistake. Guilty of mistake number 3 too with the adverbs. My version wasn't quite "he said loudly" but "she shouted out loud" which seems kind of redundant, but I don't know. Mistake #4 Whispered vs. Said quietly The tip to see if a whisper works by saying the dialogue tag out loud is pretty good.

[@eygthatsme]

Great video, thanks!! Here's my question. What about putting the action and dialogue tag first? What's the rule there? I'm reading a friend's first draft and in it, at least half of the dialogue has the tag coming first. To use the example from your video, it would be: He pulled out a chair, sat down and said, "I hope this isn't a bad time." Or: He crossed his arms and said, "we need talk. It's urgent." So, there's also the capitalization issue. I want to give feedback to change all these instances to START with the dialogue and end with the tag, but I can't find any content to back me up. No one mentions it in videos like this one about dialogue tags or paragraph structure. So, am I wrong? Can you please help? THANK YOU!!!

[@Fuliginosus]

If there are more than two characters potentially in the discussion, does every line need a tag?

[@SARbeaver1]

I would rarely add "she exclaimed" after an exclamation mark.

[@screammyname8167]

Is “he says” or “she says” are dialogue tags?? I saw numerous authors used these tags which confuses me …