Mastering DIALOGUE TAGS in Writing (With Examples!) | Fiction Writing Advice
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- Опубліковано 30 чер 2024
- Learn how to use Dialogue Tags like a pro! Tons of examples included.
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Credit to SkyDilen for my video intro.
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This dude is such a good storyteller that I now _really_ want to know how the rest of that magic show turned out.
Haha another commenter said it reminded them of something the Joker would do
@@WriterBrandonMcNulty My own extrapolation is that the theater being engulfed in flames would turn out to also be an illusion. The audience might be initially relieved, but soon grows angry. Put simply, no one goes to a magic show with the expectation of fearing for his life. The reader then learns the magician has become disillusioned by the "normal reaction" of audiences to his typical performances. Hence, the "fire in a crowded theater" magic routine.
"I think Brandon did a terrific job with this tutorial" David said.
You missed a comma xD
I just published the first 8 chapters of my book to get some brutal honesty. I found out as soon as you let people read your stuff you get more honest with yourself. After watching this video I realized my dialogue tags felt off because I was trying to do too much with them. Thanks for helping me yet again
Letting ppl read your stuff is a great way to become objective. I encourage you to continue, and let other book readers chime in too 🤘🏽
I suggest you let an editor, another experienced writer or trusted close friend read your work, rather than let it out to the public. People can be brutal and unconstructive online, but even more importantly pull you away from your style and intention. I've learned this the hard way. There's very few people who I trust to analyze my writing. You need to find a good writer who wants to help you achieve YOUR goal, not their own.
The most important video on UA-cam. I learned more from this in 11 minutes than I did in a semester of grammar class.
Thrilled to hear it--thanks!
I mostly use the action and description variants. It helps getting away from the white room conversation problem, since it automatically adds something more than just talking.
"Adverbs suck." Thank you! The moment I learned this, my work became so much better in workshops. They have a place, but never in dialogue.
I actually wish this tutorial was longer. This was so damn good and well explained.
Thank you so much.
Thanks! I cut it down from 15 mins because I didn't want it to drag. Glad it helped!
@@WriterBrandonMcNulty trust me, it wont be a drag. You should also think about your watch time. The longer your videos the more watch time you get, then youtube will start to push out your videos to a bigger audience because they will see many people are watching your vids for longer.
@@peterheyes8552 Good to know. And the Good Vs Bad Dialogue video looks like it's going over 15 mins, so hopefully YT will push this one hard
@@WriterBrandonMcNulty excellent. Keep up the good work. I have learned so much from you. You are good at teaching
@@peterheyes8552 Thrilled to hear it--thanks!
I feel much more comfortable about using dialogue tags having watched this! Thanks.
I've gotten so many different answers about this topic. I'm going back and forth between a few beta readers and some like my mixing of dialogue tags and some prefer that use mostly just asks or says. I guess it's personal preference.
How comfortable are you with using dialogue tags? Let us know!
I know I covered a lot today, so fire away with questions if you have any!
I'm working on a novel that involves teens. As a teacher, I know they can talk with each other via texting. In the novel, I have some scenes of dialog of teens texting a conversation. Should I used proper formatting, or text message lingo for that dialog. Right now, I'm using the latter. What say you?
Ive heard people say use a bunch of different dialogue tags and the reverse of only use said. I think dialogue tags outside if said should really be if you are trying to have your character express emotion. Tags carry subtext. "I'll kill you" he snarled. Expresses anger in some degree while also allowing the writer to avoid describing facial features or actions like that because it already has subtext.
Thank you so much for this marvelous video and your great job!
Despite the fact that I'm an English learner, I want to become a writer. This is the reason I am here!
Regards from Ukraine!
Glad the video helped! Best of luck with your writing journey
@@WriterBrandonMcNulty
You too! Writing is hard sometimes, right?
This was very helpful. Dialogue tags have often confused me. This cleared up a lot
I’m glad you add examples. It really helpsss
This video was exactly what I needed right now, thanks so much! Really comprehensive and easy to understand!
Brandon, this is one the most brief and useful videos on storytelling I have come across. You're awesome man.
Dialogue is my archenemy, and hopefully with this I will be better at it.
Fantastic tutorial as always. Very educational! Thank you Brandon.
Thanks!
Your great teacher , one learns fast
Thanks!
You are very gifted at teaching! Best I've seen in a while. 😁
Just found a new writer to follow. Well-done Brandon
Great video as always. I really appreciate the idea about "said" and "asked" being the most commonly used tags. I am constantly trying to come up with other words to give my writing more flavor, and honestly I think I will continue to struggle with that side of me, but now I know I can use these simple words. Quick question though, I am working on my first novel and struggling with all kinds of things, one of which is dialogue between the main character and everyone else, because the main character is a captain of a large military spaceship and every other character is a subordinate including a good friend of his and a woman he is starting to have feelings for. I can't figure out when to have more personal dialogue between these characters because they are fleeing for their lives the whole story. There are some lulls in the action, very long lulls chronologically but not much happens story wise.
i recently stumbled on to this channel and have been bingewatching ever since. better late then never. thank you for all these great tips!
Thanks! Glad the videos are helping
Ohhhhhh. Looking forward to this one. Thanks for preparing my video request for next week. Can't wait for that one as well.
Just recorded it today--should be up on Thursday
Thanks Brandon, for this lovely video. It was exactly what I was looking for 👍🏾🙏🏽
Glad it helped--best of luck with your dialogue!
THANK YOU. This is a great informational video. You did well explaining! You're amazing. I can't thank you enough.
Thank you! I'm quite new to this writing thing, but I'm enjoying it so far. I just spent 45 minutes writing a little scene, and I really struggled with the dialogue tags. This is going to help me a lot.
Thank you. This helped refresh me.
I’ve always been trying to replace said because my teachers all tell me “Said is dead”
Very helpful, new writer and didn’t understand how much or little to use a tag. Explain very well thank you
Thanks for watching! Best of luck with your writing!
Awesome video! Thank you, Brandon : )
I am definitely a learn-by-example type of person, and dialogue has been one of my worst enemies until now. Balancing POV with multiple main characters (especially during fight scenes) remains my #1 nemesis though. 😫
Do you stick to one POV per scene? That might help
@@WriterBrandonMcNulty yes, but choosing which character to focus on in which scene is a challenge too 😓
@@SpiritedHeart94 Ask yourself which character will face the most conflict in a scene. Also ask who has the most at stake in a particular scene. Usually you want the POV character with the most to gain/lose
@@WriterBrandonMcNulty I’ll keep that in mind, but what about situations that affect the group as a whole (likely if the group’s in a potentially-deadly situation together)? How do you decide which character to focus on then? As you can see this is an ordeal & a half for me 😅
@@SpiritedHeart94 Focus on who is most scared or who has the most to lose or who is going to have the most "interesting" approach to solving the problem. Your choice haha
Very well explained!
Thank you so much for making this tutorial. This will really help with the horror book I'm making.
Loved this one. Your information reinforced what I suspected from simply reading fiction. I do appreciate the clarification; it’s going to help a lot with my first attempt at writing a book. And hopefully the second, and third...
Haha and fourth and fifth. No shame in that though. Just keep writing and keep taking chances. You’ll grow
Great video, thanks!
I absolutely agree with "says" and "asks" for the majority of tags, but what about "replies" instead of "says" when the speaker is answering a question? And what about "remarks" instead of "says" when the speaker's answer is snarky or opinionated? Thanks!
I’m not a fan of either. Says does the job in both cases
Excellent video. Will check out all your videos
Great video! Thank you!
Glad you liked it!
In the very last example, instead of "...he said, narrowing his eyes at the audience", how about simply going with "...he narrowed his eyes at the audience"? Would that be a cleaner way of doing the same thing or is "he said" necessary in general?
Both ways work
@@WriterBrandonMcNulty Thank you
Just a susjest. Narrowing is on going. Mo open ended. Narrowed is mo a fun deal. Then again, narrowed is a finishing of the action yes, how ever expectation. " Then he clenched his feet". Mo economical to. Usually it appears, brevity is mo artistic.If U can't otherwise decide, op for simplicity.
This is a great video. He did very well explaining. I will say, though... I've heard over and over that we need to say "said" and "asked" the most, with spare usage of "whispered, shouted," and so on. That's honestly become somewhat of a pet peeve of mine. I would prefer hearing "Sam snorted" or "Sarah laughed" or "Tim grouched." It adds so much flavor, and hearing "said" over and over kinda grates on me. But I know this is stuff editors are looking for, so I am trying to comply with the rules in the book I'm writing, but... I truly don't agree as of right now 😬 oh well. It is what it is
You do a great job.
This answers so many questions for me.
Thrilled to hear it helped!
To grateful to find this video
Great info! Thank you, it helped a lot.
Sure thing--glad it helped!
Hi Brandon,
Thank you for this video.
Do you have a video on spacing? What I mean is When dialogue begins how much to space and at the end of the dialogue how much do we space before continuing.
Thank you so much.
This video was so good 🎉❤ thabks alot
Many times in a scene I'm working on, I have my characters doing things while speaking. So the dialogue comes in as part of some action that's happening. It helps keep the conversation from being two talking heads. I also like to make a game out of seeing how long I can go before I have to repeat he said/they said, maybe throw in some flavor like, They nodded, they shrugged. Using the name of the character is also good, especially when there are more than two persons speaking. If a conversation is happening between two people back and forth, and third person says something, I may use their name in the tag (said Chris, said Claire) to change the focus for the reader who is speaking and when.
This is helpful. Thanks
Glad to hear! Thanks for watching
Good stuff! Thank you :,)
Nice explanation! Thank you!
Personally, I never use 'said', I tend to just just have an action tag that helps the reader sense the speaker's attitude or demeanour:
The magician flashed a broad grin at the audience.
"For my next trick," he began, then his grin became even broader. His eyes twinkled.
"I'm going to make those emergency exits disappear!"
Thank you for this wonderful video. Thoroughly enjoyed ir. A question for you. Is there a reason why you put the action/thought/description tags in the middle of the quote? Would it have different effects, if you had put them before or after the quote?
Finally a video I can watch without my glasses on. lol
Thank you
Glad the video helped! Thanks for watching
I love the sutlty "Tim ASKED."
I avoid using dialogue tags whenever possible. You can instead write something like:
A thoughtful expression was on his face. "I'm not sure I understand."
No dialogue tag at all. After mentioning "him" or his name and showing his behaviour, the reader knows that it is this person speaking.
I looked something up in a novel by Melanie Rawn. There I noticed that she did not use any dt nor the method I just suggested. In a dialogue between 2 characters, she let them take turns talking. Only when the facial expression or something one of them was doing was relevant she added a dt or a sentence like I suggested.
I think using "said", "asked" and "answered" a lot lowers the level, even though they promote the flow of reading.
😂great. Does the speaker always preced the verb.?
1:13 I always overstress about using "said" in writing. Thought I would be using too much.
Hey, Mr. Brandon. I'm an aspirant writer, see? This video was very helpful with my manuscript, but I wanna learn how to write a compelling dialogue in first POV. Especially when I write from different person's point of view, so I'm looking forward to a video on how to do this in a compelling way. Thank you very much.
Hey thanks for the request. Can you be a little more clear and specific with your request? Like what would you want to learn from the video?
- Writing compelling dialogue in the 1st Person POV?
- 3rd person POV as well? (dialogue honestly doesn't change much in 1st vs 3rd Person POV)
- Different dialogue voices for different characters?
- Anything else?
Sorry, I got hyped up last night. But to be clear, I want to learn how to make transitions, like to show that I was from this person's POV jumping to another person's POV. I've tried making diverse accents already and it doesn't seem to work out pretty well for the transitions, and sometimes I have to literally state that it was his/her POV in order to make things clear.
@@inggogauran7921 Hmm, is your question more about dialogue or POV jumping?
If you have two characters talking (out loud) back and forth, that's dialogue, and the POV doesn't matter.
However, if you have a dialogue exchange and you "enter the heads" of the two characters to give us their thoughts, that would be more of a POV thing. Is that what you mean by transitions?
Also, have you thought of sticking to one POV per scene? Often that simplifies things and eliminates any potential confusion
I liked your video. It's very useful. I'm a fiction writer but I write in my native language which is Sindhi. Do you advise to use the same principles of dialogue techniques in another language too. Please let me know. Thanks
Thanks! And I'm honestly not sure how dialogue works in other languages. Do you know any Sindhi writers you can reach out to?
Oh, this is a tricky topic for me! In most books that have dialogue, I have issue keeping up with who's saying what, even in the simplest back and forth convos between two characters, unless there's a dialogue tag on literally every line. I dunno why, maybe I just have trouble telling different "voices" apart in text, no matter how obvious it may be to most people. So, me then being a rather anxious writer in regards to this, I add dialogue tags to almost every single line, with only a rare few exceptions, when even I could figure out who says what. Sometimes I get frustrated with all of my dialogue tags, but I know that's preferable to not being able to tell who says what in my own book. (That would make editing really difficult, if not else.)
This leads me to often try to spice it up by combining action with dialogue, so that my characters aren't just sitting on their asses doing nothing while talking, hopefully distracting from the endlessly repeating dialogue tags. Of course I make sure their actions aren't pointless, I mean that I try to avoid making scenes that are focused solely or almost solely on conversation to drive the plot forward. Because I think that would look really bad with my frantic dialogue tagging. At the same time though, I wish more writers would be a bit more generous with their dialogue tagging, so that I wouldn't have to spend so much time just figuring out who says what and then feeling like an idiot for not being able to.
After hearing so much advice on this kinda stuff in my search to become a better writer, and knowing that not everyone (including writers) are "smart enough" to figure out who says what in a written dialogue... can it be a style choice, for lack of better wording, to have more generous dialogue tagging? Or is it just gonna be extremely annoying for the "smarter" readers out there?
As a middle grade writer I often reverse the tag word order and write said Ariana. I know that you wouldn't write that for adult fiction but for kids, it seems to work better.
No kidding? I wonder why that is. Probably because younger audiences need to be clued in sooner, I would guess?
Do you have a course on story telling that teaches how to write good stories from start to finish?
Just re-visiting this video after hitting a bit of a dialogue-heavy chapter, it's the first point in the book where there are several people contributing to a conversation and I'm finding that it feels a bit too vague at times without specific tags, but I also don't want to be quoting the person's name every time and weighing the sentences down 🤔 I'm thinking about giving a couple of the characters slightly more distinctive speech styles to see if it helps them bounce off each other more effectively, or perhaps the scene just needs more tension to differentiate the characters, any tips appreciated 😇
Clarity is most important. Too many tags is always better than confusion
According to the Chicago Manual of Style, one shouldn't use 'asked' as a dialog tag when the dialog ends with a question mark, because the question mark already identifies the sentence as a question. Using 'asked' as a dialog tag is redundant. I find myself agreeing with the venerable CMS, at least, regarding 'asked' as a dialog tag, but this raises another issue. Using 'said' following a question doesn't feel smooth, although the character spoke the words in the question. Fortunately, you've already provided an alternative. If the character needs a dialog attribution, the writer can use an action, thought, or description tag. Perhaps you could discuss the point of the CMS in another video.
"Mom?" Tim licked his dry lips. "Can I go to the magic show?"
One thing to consider with asked is audiobooks. When listening to a story, the “asked” tag can add clarity is some cases
Hi, Good video !
Small question please, which one is better or correct to use in story telling book.
A: John was preparing to leave, “will need...”
B: John was preparing to leave and he said, “will need...”
English isn't my first language, sometimes get confused with structures.
Thanks
I would love to find a good alternative to dialogue tags. I don't like them because they are repetitive and if they aren't at the start of the speech then you don't know who's voice to read it in or what tone to use until you have already started reading. I'm not sure if it is expected that the reader will glance at the end of the speech to find out, but I don't think they should be expected to do that. If I solve this by putting Brandon said at the start of all my speech this would get very repetitive. I would be tempted to structure how plays do it but then that would be confusing to hear if the story was being read aloud.
"I know that was a longer video..." Brandon McNulty said to a 11 Minute Clip he made.
"These were my short tipps and I hope they will improve your writing..."
Brandon Sanderson said after a 40 Minute Video.
Remember Folks: Names are just Whispers in the Wind. Not every Brandon is like the other.
I haven't written anything for awhile, but as you said clarity is so important. I also like dialogue to flow. I get annoyed when a writer has to write a description of what the character is doing in each dialogue tag. And I also don't like when an author has to describe a character in each dialogue tag and uses so many descriptions that I am not sure there is another character added. I guess I should watch more of your videos to see if you cover these subjects.
“Very helpful,” said Wayne.
Coincidentally, one of my novel’s main characters is named Timothy.
Good educational video!
I have questions, how about the writer that often use: "While" "With" "as" after the dialogue tag. For example: "He said while embracing her from behind." or "He said with a slight nod" or "He said as he walks toward her"
Is this correct or Is it good to use these kinds of things?
Those are fine as long as you don't overuse them. Use them strategically.
"I heard somebody got hurt at one of those magic shows." Yeah, 3rd degree burns after the magician set the building on fire. Haha really good video btw
Haha thanks!
Wait… that example with Tim and the magic show is giving me deja vu and nostalgia. It’s not from Bad Hare Day from the Goosebumps series, is it?
If you are writing from a present view in your narrating, do you use says and asks instead of said and asked?
Thank you so much. I’m editing my book and had no idea that I don’t have to use dialogue tags every time someone speeks 😂 My tekst looks so much better now 🎉
If you're going to misspell like that, forget about dialog tags.
I'm not writing in English silly 😅
I am working on a novel that involves teens. Since they often text their conversations, should I use some of their text lingo in the dialog, or spell and format everything properly. I've been using text lingo to give what's going on in their mind - but I wonder which would be better for the overall story.
Using the same verbs like 'asked' and 'said' repeatedly in the book could get a bit redundant, don't you think? Is there a way we can mix it up and vary our word choices to keep it more engaging? May I use the name of the characters instead of the verbs? I did it once and so many people liked that.
One Idea I had for my book with a child protagonist who is also a first person narrator, is that when she gets particularly excited about something, is that she would add an exclamation mark to the dialogue tag, for example:
"I'm gonna win this!", I said!
Any thoughts on this?
8:04 Just a thought. What happens when you're back and forth dialogue spans a page break?
That's the job of the page-layout guy. It'll happen, and it'll happen a lot because you don't know where page breaks will be until you get to the composition phase. You need to know the page size, the margins, the font, the font size, the spacing, etc.
You'll probably be asked to shorten or lengthen some periods/lines to fit the pages better.
One way to write dialogue is to think of everything as an important quote.
Example.
Instead of "Let's go this way," She said
Make it a quote. Like someone important said it.
example -
"We've come this far to give up. Let's keep going." She said.
"This path is steep, let's go the other way."
"We have to go right. Go that way."
" I can't believe you're giving up. The destination is right up the mountain" she said. "I know a shortcut, let's go this way."
Not at all comfortable. About the only drawback of dialogue in literature is we can't recognize the sound of a voice, echolocate the direction the sound might be coming from, or see a character's lips move. Hence, D-tags has been the go-to easy compromise solution. I just don't consider it a very good solution, at all (to put it nicely).
I probably eschew D-tags more than anyone I can think of, or in anything I've read. I feel like there are usually much better and more effective (and invisible) ways to indicate who is speaking while not confusing the reader. It's harder to do, but IMHO worth the effort. I know that 'he said' is supposedly invisible, but that feels to me like nothing more than a lazy writer phoning it in. It looks to me like the mark of amateur writing, or a habitual annoying tick they might have acquired, based on 'but that's how everybody does it!' I wish everybody would just stop doing that.
D-tags are also a form of telling rather than showing. I think a reader could fall asleep if you hand them that info directly all the time, but they may stay more on their toes if they have to work just a tiny bit to comprehend who is speaking, and that is one more way to get them to activate their brains and tell the story to themselves, which I consider paramount for their engagement. A tiny bit of curiosity, tiny mysteries solved quickly (never leading to confusion), can be really powerful in keeping readers engaged. Too many D-tags feels condescending to me, as if the author doesn't credit the reader with being adept enough to understand what's going on.
I prefer to take it to the next level.
So I typically use thought and action tags among other techniques, and if the dialogue gets even just a tiny bit emotional (usually a good thing), I have characters address each other by name on occasion. I also do on rare occasion use something like 'he grumbled' or 'she whispered', but maybe less than a handful of times all totaled.
'She said' or 'he said'? I've never used either of those one single time. The number of times I used the word 'said' was 684 (according to Scrivener), but rarely ever in an attribution. '[Character] said', an actual D-tag attribution, was used a grand total of 33 times in over 770,000 written words, and typically only to add a pause to improve the rhythm. So we are talking about ~0.004% of the words written.
There's also another thing, which a brain-dead member of my first writing group (sadly completely untalented yet she had an MFA) could not even begin to comprehend, which is that when you have 3 people in dialogue and 2 of them are fully aligned in the topic at hand and either of them could say a particular line (with the other likely in full agreement), it honestly does not matter which of those two are attributed with that line. Either of them could say it, and the scene and the story will work the same either way. What is important there is not who said the line. All that is important in a case like this is that the line was said. The reader doesn't really need to know which of them said it.
This also gives the reader the choice to imagine, in the movie in their mind, which of them actually might have said it, and either choice is legit and will not change the story. That essentially hands the story to the reader, who is who it belongs to, and keeps the author ego out of it.
That was a good video. Sadly, I see it 2 years later :/
I wanted to ask, sometimes I see dialogues using - before the sentence to change speaker. Like:
"You saw it with your own eyes" Tim said.
-"But what did I see exactly? Seemed like hallucination."
When are those used? If ever? Is it an older style of dialogue writing?
Also, if tags are used to convey a sentiment or explain a situation, is it considered telling and not showing error?
"You saw it with your own eyes" Tim said as he focused into Beth's eyes, waiting to see if she will realize it.
"But what did I see exactly?" etc etc
It's fun because "he said, she said, it said" works really well for english books, but it is not so well used in portuguese, spanish or french books. If you read a portuguese, spanish or french book you will find a lot of writers that like sentences/dialogues like this one:
- Hey! - yelleed Brandon while reading a comment on the internet. - This is my channel! Who does this guy think he is to be here giving ideas about books in other languages?
- Why are you so angry about it? - replied his roommate as he looked at Brandon' shelf ,full of narrative writing books. - You're a published author, move on. Or, write a book about how to move forward by going backwards after reading comments on the internet and listening to your friend's tummy saying it's time to eat...
- Do you want me to write a book about my best friend? - Brandon looked at Ted and opened a huge smile. - It will be an interesting book, for sure...
- You can write a book about how hungry your best friend was before he became a komodo dragon! - replied Ted with his hands on his stomach, which was snoring. - Seafood restaurant? Chinese? Lets go!!!
I definitely have to go back through my first few chapters and apply what I learned. It definitely reads something like:
“We should go to the store,” she proclaimed.
“Yes we should,” I concurred.
“Well, then let’s go,” she responded.
“What are we waiting for?” I snapped back.
CRINGE 😬
By the way, do you have a Patreon account or some other way I can support your content? You put out a ton of helpful stuff for free and I’d like to support your work if I can.
Hahah best of luck cleaning up those dialogue tags! And the best way to support me is to buy my books and leave reviews on Amazon/Goodreads
Is the secret identity of that magician the Joker? I swear that sounds like something he would totally do.
Hahaha I didn't have him in mind when I wrote this script, but you're dead-on with that comment
@@WriterBrandonMcNulty "How about a magic trick? I'm gonna make this pencil disappear!"
(slams guy's head into the table, impaling his eye with the pencil)
"Ta-da! It's gone..."
@@rhondahoward8025 Half my theater broke out in applause when I saw TDK on opening night. Classic Joker moment.
Question: in the example dialogue between mother and son, his first question is followed by the tag, "asked". But,, after his second question, you used the tag, " said". Why didn't you use "asked" again?
Said is the default tag. You can use “asked” in the case of questions, but isn’t necessary
This is a common mistake with beginner/new writers, like me. It still bugs me with the usage of dialogue tags. Like Coolen However, she uses “she says” or “he says” rather than “he said” or “she said” which confuses me :((
“she says” or “he says” is present tense
“he said” or “she said” is past tense.
Both can be correct, depending on what tense you're telling your story in.
Late to the party, but i've never known which is correct:
"What's up?" he asked.
"What's up?" He asked.
"What's up," he asked.
"What's up?," he asked.
I like option c the best, personally, but is it correct?
That magician is a villain 💀
These tags come naturally to me. Grammar has always been easy for me, so I don't get lost in the punctuation, plus I'm a very auditory person, so I hear my dialogue as if someone were actually speaking--and I think this allows me to create good timing.
I understand the reason to stick with "said" and "asked" as much as possible. Personally, I like using these as little as possible too. Instead, I prefer showing action or consideration, part of the story outside the dialogue, that implies the speaker. For example, I see stuff like...
He said, "That's all, folks," and dropped the microphone.
Generally, this would be better as...
"That's all, folks." He dropped the microphone.
Thanks for another great video!
11:28 Pretty comfortable but I worry that my diaglougr tags could drag the story.
I'm confused as to when you start a new paragraph.
When Person 1 speaks = Paragraph 1
When Person 2 speaks = Paragraph 2
When Person 1 speaks again = Paragraph 3
I had always thought "__said" was just boring and bad dialougue. And so i often feel paralyzed trying to "spice it up" with better verbs and fancier descriptors from yhe thesouarus but then it just feels loaded and inauthentic. I like your way of just using tags for simplicity and ease of understandjng. I guess the "excitnent" and "spice" of the story comes more from the conflict, the characters emotions, the actions of the characters, their interactions amongst eachother. The point of tags is just to confirm and identify who is soeaking and in egenral how are tey speaking and maybe what theyre doing very basically to get a general picture.
I dont have to overload the dialogue with fancy descriptions? Maybe i can focus moreon what theyre saying and make that interesting so the tags dont really have to be special?
I weirdly brought this up in another video’s comments. One of Raymond Chandler’s rules of dialogue was also to stick with “said” and do nothing fancy.
Except that you can find a plethora of instances from countless bestselling and famous authors in which the extremely successful author consistently uses dialogue tags other than said or asked. Replied, stated, reported, confirmed, posited, answered, explained…among many other dialogue tags are frequently used in highly successful published works that were presumably edited by a professional editor. So, you’re saying you should aim for 90% of dialogue tags being said or asked? Why? That’s definitely not what you see in the writing of bestselling authors.
Am I blind or drunk?
Your not blind or drunk, I think he has gotten a better camera since then