How To: Wattpad Writing

Dialogue Tags

As requested by Anaely987

If you're not familiar with dialogue tags, they're the ending of a dialogue sentence when the sentence doesn't end in the quotations. Example:

No dialogue tag:
    She frowned. "Where are you going?"

    "I'm leaving," he said.

With dialogue tag:
    "Where are you going?" >>she asked with a deep frown as he approached the door.<<

    "I'm leaving," >>he concluded, an expression of remorse on his otherwise hardened face.<<

As you can see, the dialogue tag is the fragment that follows a dialogue sentence, and this part is going to all be dedicated on how to write them!*

*As there are infinite possible ways to write these and there is no standard, or even necessity, to include them, this guide will give general guidelines on how to write a comprehensive tag.

Step One: Set your scene
• The easiest way to find yourself smiling at beautiful dialogue tags is to find tidbits of the characters, setting, and situation to use.
• The point of a dialogue tag is to add more to the story, whether it be emotion or details, so as long as you include a small piece of information with it, you can't go wrong!

Step Two: Begin
• For this example, we're going to say that a blonde haired woman, named Claire, is parting ways with her brunette girlfriend, named Dana. The pair did not end on good terms, so we need to portray that emotion, and what better way than in dialogue tags? Let me show you how I would write it, and then I'll go over each part of it afterward. Here we go:

***

"We're breaking up." There was no emotion in Dana's voice as her blue eyes glistened, staring at her girlfriend's shocked face. She was numb.

"D-Dana, what are you talking about?" Claire asked, standing to her full height of a mere 5 feet as she pattered over to her lover's frozen form.

Dana shook her head, throwing long locks of brown hair around herself. "I can't do this anymore. It's too much," she cried, finally allowing the tears to spill from her reddened cheeks as her chest shook.

"I'm so sorry, I've tried, I really have," Claire pleaded as her hands found her love's jacketed waist. She cried pathetically as she pressed her cheek to Dana's soft stomach, wondering what could have pushed her to the edge.

"I know you have, Love," Dana confirmed, sniffling deeply as she trudged a hand through the blonde's soft hair. She would miss finding stray hairs on her clothing and in her car, but she knew she had to stay strong to get through this. Some people weren't meant to stay in your life forever.

***

See how much better it sounds than if you would have instead left out everything after the quotation marks? Dialogue tags help to further expand upon a story, and you know the best way to create them?

Use emotion, scenery, and character appearance/personality to create the tags. If you noticed, the dialogue sentences I wrote above are paired with phrases like "eyes glistened with tears", "her hands found her lover's jacketed waist", and other phrases such as "stepping from the cold breeze", "screaming with the birds", etc. are what truly make the tag.

Alright, that's all I've got for ya guys on this one! If you have any questions at all, or you'd like me to set up another scene, leave me a comment or shoot me a PM and I'll get right to it! :)