Now that the contest excitement is over (by the way, not all winners have contacted me yet), it’s time to get back to writing and editing. After all, just because you didn’t win a critique it doesn’t mean you can’t polish your work, right? (And if you need extra help, you can always hire, uhm, “someone” to help you make your manuscript shine. Just saying. In case that sounds like a wonderful idea, you might want to check the Editing and Consulting page. No pressure.)

One thing I notice lots of people have issues with is the use of beats and tags. What are those? Dialogue tags are the thing in the end of a quote that tells you someone said something. The most common one, of course, is “said”. (Yeah, I bet you’re so glad I shared this outstanding piece of information.) Seriously, you should be. Because people come up with the oddest tags. So here is a little cheat sheet.

Most of the time, “said” is your best bet. The only exceptions are “asked” (when the character actually is asking something, of course) and things that show volume or tone, like “whispered” and “yelled”. Other “cute” tags should be avoided. I see lots of responded, advised, inquired (that’s very popular), stated… Those are no good. They sound artificial and make the reader stop. You don’t want the reader to stop. Ever. Not even to pee. “Said” lets the story flows. It lets the focus stay on the actual words that are being said, not the tag. Most of these actually sound a bit obvious. Like using “responded” when a character is answering a question. Really, if someone asked something and someone else said something that answered that question, it’s quite unnecessary to state after the quote that they “responded”.

But won’t “said” get too repetitive?

Aha! I’m glad you asked. Most of the time, “said” can be used quite a lot without being noticed. But enough is enough! So there are two things you can do. First, you can have a few lines in a dialogue with no tags at all. If character A said something, then character B said something else, you can have a few lines without actually identifying them. Especially if your characters have their own voice and are easily recognizable, which they should be.

Another way is to use a beat. Now, what is a beat? A beat is an action that identifies the speaker without the need for a tag. Here’s an example.

“I love you,” she said. Tag.

She looked down and took a deep breath. When she looked up, she had a big smile on her face. “I love you.” Beat.

See the difference? Now, still, lots of people have trouble using them. But this post will get too long if I go into that. So I’ll post again in a couple days to tell you the most common beats and tags mistakes. But why don’t you start trying those out? If you can balance your use of beats and tags, you’ll have a great dialogue!