How to Write Dialogue 101 – Grammar, Tags, and More

On a website dedicated to self-published authors, you may ask, “Who on earth is this article for? We’ve already done this research.” Well, it never hurts to have something like this around! Especially for those who aren’t all highly familiar with the intricacies of English writing. Plus, I get to share with you something you may not be aware of: the strange controversy around dialogue tags. It’s certainly not necessary to be conscious of that, but it might be interesting to be aware of it, at least.

Let’s take a look.

The Basics & Rules of Writing Dialogue

The very bare bones basics are as follows:

If your dialogue ends in a tag (such as “said”), you don’t capitalize “said” afterward. You can end a sentence with a comma, an exclamation point, or a question mark, and you are still meant to use an uncapitalized dialogue tag afterward. However, your dialogue should never end with a period if you are leading into a dialogue tag. But if you begin it with one, you can end it with a period just fine.

Examples:

• INCORRECT: “Greetings,” He said.
• INCORRECT: “Greetings.” He said.
• INCORRECT: “Greetings!” He said.
• INCORRECT: “How are you?” He asked.
• CORRECT: “Greetings,” he said.
• CORRECT: “Greetings!” he said.
• CORRECT: “How are you?” he asked.
• CORRECT: He said, “Greetings.”

Next is assumed speakers. When writing dialogue, it will be naturally assumed that the speakers go back and forth unless a new speaker is introduced to the rounds.

Example:
“Greetings,” said Bob.
“How do you do?” Sue replied.
“I’m not sure why we ask every day, but I’m fine; how are you?”
“It’s just social standards. You don’t have to be weird about it.”

In these exchanges, you’ll naturally assume it goes Bob>Sue>Bob>Sue, as they’re the only two indicated speakers in the conversation.

If you have multiple characters in the conversation, always be sure to specify the speaker when they change. In other words, if you have a conversation with Bob, Sue, and Joe, and it goes Bob>Sue>Bob>Joe, you have to specify Joe, but you needn’t specify Bob’s second line, as he already went first. Make sense? I’m sure I explained that wonderfully.

Example:
“Greetings,” said Bob.
“How do you do?” asked Sue.
“I’m doing fine; how are you?”
Suddenly, Joe declared, “Life sucks.”

So, again, when changing speakers or when there are many speakers in a conversation, if you change speakers frequently, be sure to specify who is speaking. However, you have to be careful to vary how you specify this and not over-specify unnecessarily, or your dialogue will become bland, repetitive, and make for a clunky and unappealing read – which is where the aforementioned controversies come in. More on that in a second.

First, let’s talk about dialogue tags…

What Exactly Is a Dialogue Tag?

Put simply, a dialogue tag is the attribution to who is speaking and how they are speaking. The dialogue tag is the “Bob said” element of the sentence that includes the dialogue.

“Greetings,” he said.

The dialogue tag here is in bold.

Dialogue tags do not always have to be “said,” obviously, and I’ll get to that next. Dialogue tags include but are not limited to other words such as shouted, cried, muttered, murmured, groaned, hissed, spat, snapped, and so many more, and the occasional odder one, like “grated out.”

You may begin or end the dialogue segment with the tag, if you have one at all. You can also have a character take an action before dialogue, and it will still be grammatically correct. You needn’t always only end the dialogue with the tag, as primarily seen in the first set of examples.

Examples:
He bowed and said, “Greetings.”
Bob regarded her with a smile. “Greetings.”

“Said” Controversy

If you’ve been around the writing block (no writer’s block puns intended), you may have heard of people becoming quite vitriolic and having great debates about perceived overusing of dialogue tags, with particular judgment reserved for the word “said” – or, among other groups, with particular judgment reserved for using almost anything other than “said.”

Generally, readers complain when writers over-tag dialogue.

Example:
“Werewolves are the best,” Mav said.
“Yes, they are,” said someone else.
“Why do you think they’re the best?” Mav said.
“Because they are figures of tragedy,” the unnamed speaker said.

This is unnecessary and makes the reading experience bulky and awkward, due to the previously mentioned nature of assumed speakers, with obvious exception to multiple participants in a conversation, as also previously discussed.

That is a simple writing error, not a stylistic choice, unlike what comes next…

You could rewrite that paragraph to something like this, of course:
“Werewolves are the best,” said Mav.
Someone else agreed, “Yes, they are.”
“Why do you think they’re the best?” Mav asked.
“Because they are figures of tragedy.”

After establishing the speaking order, you don’t need to readdress this unless a new speaker comes in, as previously mentioned.

However, it can make your writing both more interesting and characterized, while adding more flow, to toss in actions. One character has a nervous tic they perform during dialogue, for example, or someone is taking an action while they speak. In other words, what they call “the business” in film, or perhaps the dialogue is taking place during an action sequence of another kind. There are many methods to vary your dialogue sections and keep things interesting, keep action moving, and make sure your characters are always highlighting their personalities in various ways.

Getting back on track…

I have often heard complaints regarding when writers use dialogue tags that are not “said,” but conversely, I see countless articles complaining when writers use “said” practically even once. It’s an oddly hot-button issue. Try it out for yourself: do some searching about “said dialogue tag” and look around at what you find.

The vitriol reserved for “said” decries the usage of it in place of many other, more colorful words – but at the same time, others reserve criticism for using those instead, as over-using them can create bulky writing that makes your brain stop instead of continuing the flow. “Said” is often considered an “understood” word that doesn’t make the reader slow as heavily as they would for other dialogue tags. Critics particularly complain about some of the more loquacious ones.

So you, dear author, must choose for yourself among your repertoire of dialogue tags. Personally, I still think “said” certainly has its place in prose, and to avoid using it entirely will result in writing that reads as badly as someone overusing “said” exclusively, just for different reasons. Because you shouldn’t always use “said,” especially to portray the nuance of what exactly your characters are doing and how they are feeling.

Pan metron ariston. Moderation in all things.

Conclusion

That covers the basics! I’m not here to tell anyone how they should write their dialogue, as dialogue is extremely important – and, therefore, it is extremely important that writers craft it to their own tastes and styles. While characterization is an entirely separate can of worms, hopefully this has at least helped you with the rawer elements of tagging and capitalization.