Writers' Workshop

Grammar Help: Action Tags

Hello. After so throughly discussing dialogue tags, let's take a moment to do their counterparts: action tags! Yay. Action time!

Well, it's not as exciting as it sounds...

What are action tags?

Well, action tags are like dialogue tags, as in they're used to identify the speaker in a dialogue piece. But, unlike dialogue tags that just identify the speaker, action tags give a little more information. They show what the speaker is doing while... well, speaking.

Example:

"I'm growing impatient." Bob tapped his foot and looked at his watch. "Weren't we supposed to meet up at ten?"

The bold part is called an action tag because not only does it identify Bob as the speaker, but it also shows what he's doing while he's talking. It also subtly shows that Bob is an impatient little twat.

So, basically, the major benefit of using action tags is that it tightens the story (you don't need a new paragraph to show what Bob is doing) and it shows more of his personality. And recent studies have come to the conclusion that, when writing a story, showing is good.

You get a much better visual and feel for Bob than if you'd used a simple dialogue tag:

"I'm growing impatient," Bob said. "Weren't we supposed to meet at ten?"

It's a little more stale, isn't it?

Punctuation

This is always a problem. As explained in the Dialogue tag chapter of this book, dialogue tags are usually punctuated using commas and small letters:

"I'm an impatient little twat," he declared.

Action tags are separate sentences and should be treated as such. So there will be a period at the end of the dialogue (or any other sign like ? Or !) and the tag will begin with a capital letter:

"Don't be so hard on yourself." She didn't like it when Bob slipped into self-deprecating mode. "You're fine."

I think that's pretty clear.

Combination

Can we combine dialogue and action tags? Of course! The only way to do that is by putting the dialogue tag first (duh). And there are practically 2 ways to do it (without counting putting the tags before or after the dialogue. That doesn't count)

I'll just use examples.

1. "Can you get me some water?" she asked. She was so thirsty, her saliva had turned to sand. "The colder the better."

In this instance, I separated the dialogue and action tag in two separate sentences. Notice how you can have the action there without needing a new paragraph. SCORE!

2. "Can you get me some water?" she asked, sticking her tongue out and fanning it. "The colder the better."

In this instance, the dialogue and action tag are in the same sentence. Notice that dialogue tag punctuation is used.

So this is basically how action tags work. If you have questions, feel free to leave them in the comments.

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~Written by Wimbug