A good dialogue tag is a functional tool. It provides important information, but it feels more or less invisible once the reader is immersed in the story.
To ensure that your dialogue tags are working well, there are two key things you need to know: what information should be in a dialogue tag and how to format it.
What is a dialogue tag?
Dialogue tags are phrases attached to direct speech. They tell you who said something and sometimes how the line was said.
Dialogue tags are often as simple as [Character] said, but there are plenty of options. In these examples from When the Air Sang, the bolded phrases are the dialogue tags.
“Cicadas made them,” replied Annie’s great-grandmother. “These are special ones.”
“It’s incredible,” whispered Annie.
What isn’t a dialogue tag?
Dialogue tags are separate from action beats. While a dialogue tag tells you who said something, an action beat tells you what a person did.
Consider the difference in these two lines from Was It a Cat I Saw?
“Do you see any cat prints?” asked the boy.
The boy grinned. “Awesome.”
The first line is a dialogue tag. It tells us who said the words (“the boy”), and it reinforces that it was a question (by using “asked”).
The second line is an action beat. Smiling is a physical movement, not a way of speaking. Because it is not a dialogue tag, it is separated from the dialogue by a period.
Controversial action beats
Can you sigh a line of dialogue? Can you laugh it?
Well, let’s try! See if you can say each of these lines in a single sigh:
“No, never mind.”
“Oh, I don’t know if I’ll be able to meet that manuscript deadline, because I’m still working on the revisions for the final chapter.”
For me, that first line was fairly manageable. But in the second line, I started running out of breath, and the prolonged sigh felt awkwardly exaggerated.
Now let’s try laughter. Laugh these lines from start to finish:
“Really?”
“That movie was hilarious—especially the part where he showed up to class dressed as a giraffe!”
Once again, I could laugh a word or two. Laughing continuously through the delivery of the longer phrase felt slightly ridiculous. Now, there might be situations when you do want your character to laugh so hard that they can’t get through a full sentence—but there’s bound to be a more engaging way to show that sense of overwhelming humor than “she laughed.”
A sigh and a laugh are both actions. They’re evocative, emotional actions, but they don’t contain words. Therefore, the natural place for them is in an action beat.
But there can be room for creative liberties here, because they’re also actions that can contain words. It’s unlikely they’ll contain more than a few words, though.
So if you really want to use sighed or laughed as dialogue tags, do so judiciously—and don’t be surprised if your editor suggests changing them back to action beats.
Related: Intro to the Editing Process
Simple formatting for dialogue tags and action beats
Note: the list below reflects the punctuation standards for English-language fiction in North America. You may see different norms reflected in other countries and other languages.
A basic dialogue tag is separated from the speech by a comma.
If the dialogue comes first, then you replace the final period from the spoken line with a comma. If the dialogue comes second, then you replace the period from the dialogue tag.
“This is a line of dialogue,” he said.
She said, “This is a line of dialogue.”
What if the final punctuation is a question mark or exclamation point? Keep it! When the dialogue comes first, do not replace the question mark or exclamation point with a comma. In the first example below, notice that the word “she” remains lowercase. The dialogue tag is part of the sentence, not a new sentence, so there is no need to capitalize it after the exclamation point.
“This is a line of dialogue!” he said.
They asked, “Is this a line of dialogue?”
An action beat is its own sentence, so it does not get attached to the speech.
They cleared their throat. “This is a line of dialogue.”
“This is a line of dialogue.” He giggled.
She jumped for joy. “This is a line of dialogue,” she said.
More dialogue tag formatting
Too much “he said” and “she said”? Gather your commas and em dashes, because there are even more ways that you can use dialogue tags and action beats in your writing.
Placing dialogue tags in the middle of speech
“This,” they said, “is a line where the dialogue tag comes in the middle of the sentence.”
“This is a full sentence!” she cried. “And a second sentence starts right after the dialogue tag.”
Showing interruptions
“This is a sentence where—”
“Can I add something to this example?”
“—someone cuts you off.”
“Oh.”
Indicating that the speaker is trailing off
“This is a sentence where I might just fade off before I finish my . . .”
“What the . . .”
Combining action beats and dialogue tags
“This is a nice sentence,” he said, smiling.
“What a silly sentence,” she said with a laugh.
They sat down with a thump and said, “I’m speaking now.”
She shrieked, then covered her mouth. “I didn’t mean to say that loudly,” she whispered.
Placing action beats in the middle of speech
“After this line, I’ll pause.” He picked up the clue. “I’ll resume speaking after the action.”
“In this sentence”—she twirled a hair around her finger—“I’ll start doing something while I’m speaking.”
“I think I’ll use a dialogue tag,” they said, opening the book, “in order to clarify who’s speaking.”
Do you need dialogue tags?
That’s a bigger topic for another time. In short: Yes, sometimes. No, not always. Stay tuned!
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Dialogue tags are just one of the many tools that can help things flow smoothly for your readers. If you’re ready for feedback on your manuscript, I’d love to discuss how we can work together to prepare your story for its next steps.