Framing Dialogue

Dialogue is an important tool for characterisation, for subtle exposition and to develop relationships. Here we will focus on how to keep dialogue flowing into your story naturally by framing it properly in your narration using dialogue tags.

• Dialogue tags should be invisible

The dialogue itself is what is important; the tag is just functional. In most cases, the word “said” will do just fine — no need to come up with lots of fancy synonyms. This is one case where repetition really does not matter. Try to delete dialogue tags whenever they are not strictly needed (to know who is speaking or to understand the context) to focus completely on the dialogue.

• ‘Said’ is not dead!

‘Said’ is efficient, it does not distract from the actual dialogue, and it saves you the cognitive capacity to find a better dialogue tag, letting you focus on what your characters are saying instead. Do not feel pressured to find a more creative dialogue tag when ‘said’ can do the job.

• Avoid using adverbs too frequently in dialogue tags.

Sometimes, an adverb might suit your meaning better than changing the verb (e.g. “he said darkly” rather than “he muttered”)… but do not overdo it.

• Vary where you position your dialogue tags.

They can go before, during or after dialogue; changing them around can create a more varied and interesting rhythm for your writing.

• Punctuation in place of dialogue tag

A question mark can come a long way as does an exclamation point. But there are other ways to end a sentence. Maybe let it fade out… Give it an abrupt ending when your character is inter—

You get the gist.

• Trade tags with action beats

Actions are a better route of conveying emotions than using any type of adverbs. People move around a lot while talking, they gesture, they mimic, they change poses. Those cues are really important and can add a lot to your dialogue. They work great as pacers as well.

An action beat can often convey the way in which a line of dialogue is spoken: For instance, if a character slams his fists on a desk before saying, “Get out of my office,” you won’t need to tell the reader he is angry! That way you avoid too much telling.

Action beats can also be a useful way to create a pause in dialogue — changing the rhythm of it subtly.

• Pace the reader

Dialogue sometimes reads really fast in the reader’s mind while the act of speaking takes more time in your narration. To slow the reader down, add information about body language, setting, thoughts etc in form of action beats. The reader should read the dialogue in approximately the same speed as it plays out. Try avoiding long stretches that could come across as unnatural pauses though.

A nice trick for pacing the reader is to include the dialogue tag or action beat between spoken words when a natural pause is in the dialogue.

Example:

“It’s not that I don’t like Ginny,” Harry said, nervously scratching behind his ear, “but I don’t want her to get hurt.”

Avoid doing this whenever there is no natural pause in the dialogue as it interrupts the flow!