10 Tips for Writing Dialogue: Dialogue Tags - Plus $799 GIVEAWAY

hello everybody I have a huge news better buckle up cuz shits about to get really exciting I am launching a brand new giveaway it starts today and the prize is worth seven hundred and ninety nine dollars this is literally the biggest giveaway I have ever held in terms of a monetary value and I am so stoked here's the deal a few weeks ago the folks at 99designs contacted me they said that they really enjoy my channel and they were wondering if I could host a giveaway for you guys if you're not familiar 99designs is the world's largest creative platform for connecting writers with graphic designers or other creative professionals like book cover designers see where I'm going with this 99designs enables writers to host contests which then allows you to receive a wide variety of cover concepts from different designers you get to engage with your favorites in order to continue on in the contest and then by the end you get to choose your absolute favorite design in order to become your a book cover concept if you want more info into the process I've got it linked below check it out for this giveaway a one lucky winner is going to receive 799 dollars worth of credits on the 99 designs platform this is the equivalent of a gold level book design contest you get to use these funds toward your very own book cover fold this closure 99 designs is not sponsoring this video they are not paying me to hold this giveaway we just thought it was a really cool idea like I said one lucky winner is walking away with nearly eight hundred dollars worth of credits towards their very own book cover stick around until the end of this video to find out how to sir before I give you the details today we are talking about dialog tags as well as the narrative that surrounds a dialogue most writers think dialogue tags are very simple but no not quite lots of people be up with their tags I've done it it's very common among newbies and I'm here to help you out with my top 10 tips for tags number one you don't always need a dialogue tag a lot of newbie writers are under the impression that you need a dialogue tag every time there's a line of dialogue but here's how it sounds when you write like that hello he said hi she said how are you he said I've been better she said what's wrong he said sounds stupid doughnut dialogue tags exists for one reason to clarify who is speaking at any given time you only need a tag if it's not clear who is speaking bottom line this means that if only two people are speaking you very rarely need a dialogue tag because typically every other line is going to correspond to the opposite character additionally whether you've got two people or ten people speaking quite often narrative does the job of a dialogue tag for example say you wrote Jennifer owed her brow are you okay it's clear that jenna is the one who is speaking because of the action that took place before the dialogue so in this case you don't need a dialogue tag at all number two said is not dead one of the things a lot of people learned in school including myself is that said is a boring dialogue tag why would you use said when you can say exclaimed replied or ejaculated this is said is not dead it's an invisible dialogue tag that allows the reader to see who is speaking without slowing the pace of the conversation does that mean you have to use said as your only dialogue tag no but it should be your first choice of the time ties like contested conveyed advocated or inquired aren't gonna make it look smarter they promise which brings us to number three sometimes it's okay to ditch said emphasis on sometimes very minimal occurrences if the person isn't merely saying something they are screaming or muttering or whispering then it's okay to ditch said because you are conveying the manner in which they're speaking however again do not do this every time someone screams or every time someone whispers one because readers should be able to tell how the character is speaking due to the flow of the conversation as well as the subject matter and two because as we already covered we only use dialogue tags when we absolutely need to clarify who is speaking if it's already clear then forget about it number four just use their damn names sometimes we refer to character names via dialogue tag so often that it starts to feel repetitive I know I'll just call them something else Jenna becomes the brunette cliff becomes the blue-eyed man this is stupid don't do it just stick to their names unless you're trying to sneak in physical descriptions this is very awkward to read but Jenna there's too many of them I said the name Clifford over and over again if you've said his name and too many tags that means you probably have too many tags instead of swapping out his name with the blue-eyed man go through your tags and see which ones can get the job number five tone down the adverbs sometimes people like to spice up their dialogue tags with some happy little adverb she said quietly he said loudly nine times out of ten this is probably a bad idea a lot of people hate on adverbs and say that you shouldn't use them at all but realistically there's a time and a place for them the thing is most of the time the adverb is into necess theory it's just an adjective tacked on to a very weak verb instead of using two words to convey something you could instead use one very powerful verb or no words at all for example say your tag is she said quietly you could instead say she whispered again we don't want a ditch said too often but in this case it works say you're using the tag he said loudly you could delete the tag altogether and just add an exclamation point at the end of the string of dialogue an exclamation point means that the dialogue is an exclamation which is typically high-pitched or loud number six new voice new line this rule is simple if a new character is speaking you start a new line each change in voice is a new paragraph because each new voice is a new subject plus if multiple characters are speaking in the same paragraph you're just gonna confuse the out of your reader how are you he said I'm great she said if you put all of this on one line you done up number seven a narrative and voice go together as I already mentioned sometimes writers use narrative as opposed to dialogue tags to convey who is speaking Jenna crossed her arms in a dialogue fun if that's the case these sentences typically occur on the same line they are treated as the same paragraph now say there are multiple people speaking and there's dialogue associated with each of them Jenna crossed her arms in the dialogue fun I don't know I think it's kind of lame Peter swirled into a circle in this case the Jenna dialogue and narrative combo is its own line then the Peter dialogue and narrative combo gets its own line because remember new voice new paragraph number eight pacing matters the pacing of a conversation is going to dictate how much narrative and how many dialogue tags you utilize if the characters are having a long relaxed conversation then this is going to occur at a slower pace in this case you have a greater ability to include narrative or tags when needed you can describe their body language or clothing you can get into their tone of voice or facial expressions however if the conversation is firing off like a heated yelling match then the pacing is going to be much quicker that means narrative and dialogue tags need to be kept at a minimum in order to keep the momentum going for a fast-paced conversation only use narrative and dialogue tags when absolutely crucial number nine avoid repetition I know I said said is invisible but when you start using it over and over again in close proximity it starts to become very visible in a very bad way hello he said hi she said how are you he said I've been better she said remember that horrific example how could you forget but Jenna if I'm supposed to rely on said how do I avoid repeating myself by doing everything I already told you to do you dummy as we already covered you should only be using dialogue tags when it's absolutely necessary for the sake of clarity but even if you're convinced you're already doing that you still may be using them a lot more than you've anticipated because of this I recommend doing a search for the word said in your manuscript personally I try not to use the dialogue tag said more than two to three times on a single word doc page which for me is about 350 words and number 10 show don't tell a lot of people use dialog tags to tell the reader how the characters are feeling dialogue tag suck Jenna said angrily this is a really shitty way to express a character spilling because there's nothing remotely visual or interesting about it instead ditch the tag all together and rely on narrative to convey the emotion Jenna bawled her hands into fists dialogue tags with this example we've created a visual to go along with the dialogue that perfectly illustrates how the character is feeling and there's a lot more engaging to read that's all I got for you today or is it haha tricked you it's giveaway time as I already mentioned one lucky winner is going to receive 799 dollars worth of credits to use on 99designs toward a gold level book design contest which means this person is gonna be walking away with a book cover entering is super easy all you have to do is subscribe to my channel and leave a comment on this video down below now I know not everyone who comments on my videos is writing a novel so in order to make it super clear that your comment is an entry for my giveaway leave a heart somewhere in your comment it can be a text-based heart it can be an emoji heart it could be one heart it can be twenty hearts whatever if there is a heart somewhere in your comment I will count it as an entry toward this giveaway the winners credits can be used at any time until December 31st 2019 and of course this giveaway is open internationally you have one week to enter subscribe and comment the winner will be announced in Wednesday's video thank you so much to 99designs for hitting me up for this giveaway I've been sitting on it for a while and I'm so excited that it's finally here don't forget to subscribe my channel I post new videos on Wednesdays and if you want to be alerted as soon as I upload ring that bell the savior's champion is available in eBook paperback hardback signed hardback as well as audiobook if you are new to audiobooks you can to listen to the savior's champion for free on audible I've got all the links listed below and be sure to follow me on social media I'm on Instagram Tumblr Facebook and of course you can tweet me at chat I'm resi bye this is Ron DS why the haven't you subscribed to Jenna's channel do you really want to face me if you don't do it you know what will happen I'll rip out your tongue torture you then leave your rotten corpse out the burst of beasts on it now press the 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Channel: Writing with Jenna Moreci

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Keywords: write, writer, writing, read, reader, reading, book, books, ebook, authortube, booktube, jenna moreci, the savior's champion, the saviors champion, novel, fiction, author, writing tips, writing advice, writing motivation, writing inspiration, motivation, inspiration, publishing tips, publishing advice, writing dialogue, dialogue, dialogue tags, publish, publishing, how to write dialogue, how to write a book, great dialogue, dialogue tips, author tube

Id: WHvXTHKajwM

Length: 13min 15sec (795 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 12 2019