Speech tags are what comes before or after a character's dialogue. "'I hate patrols,' Olivepaw said."
The myth surrounding speech tags is that you should spice them up and make them interesting. This is actually not true. There's nothing inherently wrong with saying "she said." (It's also not bad to use it multiple times in a row! I know it will feel redundant, but most readers will not notice if they're not actively analyzing your work.) Of course it's fine to vary your tags with stuff like "cried", "shouted", and so on, but there's no need to lose sleep over trying to make them really unique. What you should really pay attention to are action tags.
Unlike speech tags, action tags show the character doing something while, before, or after a character says some dialogue. "Thunderstripe wrapped his tail around his paws.'It's going to be a cold leafbare this season.'"
Really, the best thing to do is use a bit both of them, occasionally at the same time.
"'I hate patrols,' Olivepaw said, flicking her tail."
Besides properly using tags, there's also a few rules regarding punctuation. If a tag follows a piece of dialogue, the sentence must be ended with a comma. You can bend the rules, but this is what most people do.
"It's a bad idea if you ask me," Spottedwing muttered.
However, you definitely need a comma if you're inserting a tag between dialogue. While we're using it, it should also be mentioned that if the last part of your sentence is dialogue, then the dialogue is ended in a period.
"It's a bad idea if you ask me," Spottedwing muttered. "You could get killed."
When it comes to the actual content, there's a lot to talk about, way too much for this guide, so I'll be quick. In dialogue, keep in mind what the speech habits of your characters might be, depending on their personality. Some characters are more relaxed and use more slang. Others are more uptight and have better grammar. Cats in the Warriors series generally speak with a little more formality than the average human. Still, a critical part to writing dialogue is remembering to talk like a normal person.
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Writing a Warriors Fanfiction: The Complete Guide
FanfictionWarriors is a massive and amazing series. Its stories have inspired some of us in the fandom to write our own adventures in this universe. If you're reading this, you're probably one of these people. But how do you go about writing a Warriors fanfic...
