Melanie Nilles

Writing good dialogue is something every writer strives for. How a character says what they say should always be truthful to that character. If you have a nun, she’s not likely to drop the F-bomb unless she’s really a headlining showgirl hiding out in a convent because she agrees to testify against her ex, a criminal, whom she saw kill a man. That’s an extreme example, but makes a good point. (I’m sure many of you know exactly which movie that describes.)

Dialogue tags can be distracting and get in the way of good dialogue. The best advice is to avoid them, except when necessary. But when are they necessary? The answer–when it may be confusing to the reader what character is speaking. How can they be avoided if it’s not clear by dialogue who is speaking? That answer is simple also–insert a sentence of action referencing what character is speaking. But, for the love of all readerdom, don’t use tags if you can avoid them! I’ve learned that the best word to use in this case is a simple four-letter “s” word.

No, not that word! Get your head out of the gutter!

“Said” and nothing else but a name, or pronoun, is the best tag. It’s not distracting nor descriptive and says everything you need that your perfect dialogue doesn’t give your prose.

Now, I’m going to contrast that. Please follow me. I have had some instances where neither method works but something more descriptive is needed, particularly if someone is whispering. That’s something that can’t be conveyed every time. You can say they spoke in a hushed voice. That works. If the situation is one that calls for the characters to keep their voices down, you probably only need to mention it once. However, sometimes a character whispers something or says something in such a way that cannot be conveyed through their words, such as using capitalization to indicate shouting, or punctuation, or even the context of the scene. In those extremes, you need to keep the rhythm of your prose. (There’s another subject for another post.) If it doesn’t feel right to use an action description separate from the dialogue, then it may work best to use a more descriptive word than “said”. Those are few and far between, however.

Being “it” can be difficult as you try to avoid tagging all your dialogue. But if you do it right, the prose will flow and the reader will hardly notice.

For examples of what I do, read the excerpts of my books.