Craft Glossary · term

Dialogue — tags & beats

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Plain English: A tag is "she said"; an action beat is a bit of business attached to a line ("She set down the cup. 'Fine.'"). Beats attribute and characterize and pace.

Rule: Default to "said/asked" (they're invisible); attribute only when the reader would otherwise lose track; prefer an action beat when you also want to show emotion or control rhythm.

Fail: Said-bookism — straining for "expostulated / opined / hissed"; adverb-stuffed tags ("she said angrily") that tell the emotion the line should show; tagging every line in an established two-hander (redundant, breaks flow).

Arjuna Badger Press · Craft Library

Glossary · Doctrine · Anti-patterns · Triptych form · LLM tells

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