😀 say it with a smile

So what is the difference between dialogue tags and action tags?

After one of my awesome clients shared this reel, I asked Threads for their thoughts, and they were…opinionated.

Lots of debate, lots of argument…but what’s the right answer?

Answer: the second one.

A dialogue tag is a phrase with a subject and a verb that has the dialogue as its object. Examples: said, yelled, whispered, argued, stammered, cried, etc.

Correct: “I know,” he said. The thing he said is “I know.”

Also correct: “I know.” He smiled. You can’t smile words, friends—and that’s where action tags come in.

An action tag is a phrase that accompanies dialogue. It’s a separate sentence, which is why you see the period after “know” and the capitalized “He.”

Fun fact: words like spoke and voiced are action tags because the dialogue itself isn’t the object. You can speak the truth or voice an opinion—but those things aren’t the dialogue, they describe the dialogue.

Is there any nuance or wiggle room here? I’ll address that next time.

Until then, let me know: what’s the weirdest dialogue tag you’ve ever read or written?

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Want feedback on your dialogue? Reply to this email with an excerpt from one of your scenes and I may use it in a future Bite.

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