When we practice Public Speaking we are often told to put in dialogues into our speech to make it more interesting and to create a connection with our audience.
Last week, I called our Master Coach.
He said, “Hi Devyani, how are you?”
He then chuckled a little and said,” you always call me on Wednesdays. Is it because you are stressed about Thursdays?”
I said, “No I don’t always call you only on Wednesdays. You have got your statistics wrong. Besides, today is Tuesday!”
“Oh dear!” he said “how did I miss that?” and gave his signature full-throated laugh.
Now analyze the dialogue.! Apart from noticing the jovial nature of our Master Coach, what else did you notice?đ
Did you notice how many times I have used the dialogue tag of ‘he said’ and ‘I said’?
Excessive usage of he said, she said, I said actually diminishes the value of the dialogue, makes it monotonous and boring,
thereby deviating from its main purpose – of creating interest.
So which are those words that can be used instead of ‘said’? There are many such words and they are collectively called dialogue tags
What is a âdialogue tagâ?
A dialogue tag is a group of words following quoted speech (e.g. âshe saidâ), identifying who spoke and/or how they spoke. Other words for âsaidâ can indicate:
Volume (e.g. yelled, shouted, bellowed, screamed, whispered)
Tone or pitch (e.g. shrieked, groaned, squeaked)
Emotion (e.g. grumbled, snapped, sneered, begged)
The relation between these elements of voice is also important. It would be strange, for example, for a character to âsneerâ the words âI love youâ. âSneerâ connotes contempt which is contrary to love.
Use âsaidâ sparingly
The word âsaidâ, like âaskedâ, gives no color and personality to a characterâs utterance. In a conversation between characters, alternatives for ‘said’ can tell the reader:
# The individual emotional or mental states of those conversing
# The degree of conflict or ease in the conversation
# What is the nature of the relationship between characters (for example, if one character always snaps at the other this will show that the character is dominant and perhaps unkind towards the other)
The following are a few of the dialogue words that can be used instead of âsaidâ. They have been categorized by the kind of emotion or scenario they convey:
Anger:Â Shouted, bellowed, yelled, snapped, cautioned, rebuked.
Affection:Â Consoled, comforted, reassured, admired, soothed.
Excitement:Â Shouted, yelled, babbled, gushed, exclaimed.
Fear:Â Whispered, stuttered, stammered, gasped, urged, hissed, babbled, blurted.
Determination:Â Declared, insisted, maintained, commanded.
Happiness:Â Sighed, murmured, gushed, laughed.
Sadness:Â Cried, mumbled, sobbed, sighed, lamented.
Conflict:Â Jabbed, sneered, rebuked, hissed, scolded, demanded, threatened, insinuated, spat, glowered.
Making up:Â Apologized, relented, agreed, reassured, placated, assented.
Amusement:Â Teased, joked, laughed, chuckled, chortled, sniggered, tittered, guffawed, giggled, roared.
Storytelling:Â Related, recounted, continued, emphasized, remembered, recalled, resumed, concluded.
A word of Caution
Too many dialogue tags can make your dialogue start to feel like a compendium of emotive speech-verbs. Remember dialogue tags are the salt and spice in a dialogue and not the whole meal.đ±Hence, use emotive dialogue tags only where necessary and for emphasis.
Also, using tags sparingly allows your reader the pleasure of inferring and imagining. The reader gets to fill in the blank spaces, prompted more subtly by the clues you leave.
Look at this conversation:
âI told you already,â I said, glaring.
âWell I wasnât listening, was I!â he said.
âApparently not,â he replied.
Now compare this to the following:
I glared at him. âI told you already.â
âWell I wasnât listening, was I!â
âApparently not.â
The second dialogue seems better, does it not? This is because itâs clear the glaring first-person âIâ is the character speaking at first and so, we donât need to add âI saidâ.
The strength of the exclamation mark in the second characterâs reply makes any dialogue tag showing emotion (e.g. âhe snappedâ) unnecessary. Because itâs on a new line and responds to what the other said, we know itâs a reply from context. When you are speaking out the dialogue, you can put the correct emotions (of indignation) in this line.
Similarly, in the first speakerâs retort, we donât need a tag telling us his tone (that itâs curt, sarcastic, or hostile). The brevity, the fact itâs only two words, conveys his tone and we can infer the character is still mad.
I hope you would find the above list of words useful. Use them appropriately, and just see the difference! đđ»