Authors You Need to Learn How To Write Dialogue Tags

There is this painful misconception out there that you can do whatever you like when you’re writing a book and it’s going to be okay. Of course sometimes you might get lucky, but most of the time if you ignore all the most basic rules of writing you’ll come off looking like an amateur. I have no reason to lie about this. I didn’t make this up myself. I learned it and I studied it so I wouldn’t look like an amateur.

With that said, I’m linking to a post right now by a blogger who’s been a literary agent, a published author, a teacher, a tech writer, and an editor. He knows what he’s talking about and I trust his advice. I learned how to do these things in college, but I love the way he organized all this information into one simple post. You cannot go wrong with this. It’s everything you need to know about dialogue tags.

If there’s one tip I can leave you with, let it be this one: don’t worry about repeating dialogue tags.

Readers don’t notice the repetition in dialogue tags any more than they notice when you repeat the word “the.” They will notice if you change the tag every time, add lots of frills, and try to get too clever.

And here’s the link. I think this is some of the most important writing information you can get. I don’t care what your mom told you, or what Becky next door told you, or what some amateur told you on Twitter, this is good information you need to learn.

Queer High School Senior Penalized For Wearing Pants To Graduation

Of course it goes without saying that I don’t like what they did to this kid, but I’m actually surprised to see there’s going to be a graduation at all. I think every graduation I know of in my area has been canceled thanks to COVID.

In any event, they penalized her for not wearing a dress.

“I was angry more than anything because we worked hard to even have a graduation and then I can’t walk because I don’t got on a dress,” she added.

You can read more, here. I don’t blame her for being angry.

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