From the course: The Foundations of Fiction

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Dialogue tags (foundation)

Dialogue tags (foundation)

From the course: The Foundations of Fiction

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Dialogue tags (foundation)

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(jaunty jingle) - Oh my gosh, is that a snake? - She yelled hysterically. - What do you think of this tea? - She whispered surreptitiously. - Ow, my arm hurts. - She moaned ardently. - I had the best dinner last night. - She gushed ecstatically. - Okay, we better stop, this is too funny. - We need to tell them what we're up to. - This lecture is all about how to tag your dialogue. Tags are the words that come after a piece of dialogue that attribute the speech to whoever is talking. - [Jo] He said, or she said, or I said, are the most common tags. - [Jess] These tags are often then combined with an adverb to make them more descriptive. - [Jo] For instance, she said furiously or he said quietly. - [Jess] And sometimes the he said or she said tags are replaced with verbs that are more descriptive, such as she murmured or he yelled. - In this lecture, we're going to talk about this kind of tagging and how it can effectively mix up your writing, making it more compelling to read. - But…

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