(Music. LOGO)
Hellooo, everybody! I have huge news, better buckle up bitches cuz shit’s
about to get really exciting. I am launching a brand new giveaway. It starts today and the prize is
worth $799. 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, 99 designs 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 book cover concept. If
you want more info into the process, I've got it linked below. Check it out for this giveaway. One
lucky winner is going to receive $799 worth of credits on the 99designs platform. This is the
equivalent of a gold level book design contest. You get to use these funds toward your very own
book cover. Full disclosure 99designs is not sponsoring this video. They are not paying me
to hold this giveaway. We just thought it was a really fucking cool idea. Like I said, one lucky
winner is walking away with nearly $800 worth of credits towards their very own book cover. Stick
around until the end of this video to find out how to enter. Before I give you the details, today we
are talking about dialogue tags as well as the narrative that surrounds dialogue. Most writers
think dialogue tags are very simple, but no not quite. Lots of people be fucking up their tags.
I've done it. It's very common among newbies, and I'm here to help you out with my top ten tips for
tags. Number One (1): 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. “Whoa,” he said. “Hi,” she said. “How were you?” he said.
“I've been better,” she said. “What's wrong?” he said. Sounds stupid don't it? Dialogue tags
exist 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: Jenna furrowed
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 (2): 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 bullshit. 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 shouldn't be your first choice most of the
time. Tags like contested, conveyed, advocated, or inquired aren't gonna make it look smarter.
I promise. Which brings us to Number Three (3): 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 was speaking. If it's already clear, then
forget about it. Number Four (4): Just use their damn names. Sometimes we refer to character names
via dialogue tags 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 Jennaaa, there's too many of them. I set the name Clifford over and over again”
If you've said his name in 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 chop. Number Five (5): Tone down the adverbs. Sometimes people like to spice up their dialogue
tags with some happy little adverbs. 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 isn't necessary. 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 wanna 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 pitch or loud. Number Six (6): 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 going to confuse the shit out of your reader. “How are you?'' he said,
“I'm great, she said.” If you put all this on one line, you done fucked up. Number Seven (7):
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. “Isn’t 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. “Isn’t dialogue fun?” “I don't know. I think it's kinda
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 get’s its own line because remember, new voice,
new paragraph. Number eight (8): 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 (9): 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 can you forget? “But Jennaaa, if I'm supposed to rely on said, how do I avoid repeating myself?”
By doing everything I already told you to, 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 Ten (10): Show don't tell. A lot of people
use dialogue tags to tell the reader how the characters are feeling. ‘“Dialogue tags suck!”
Jenna said angrily.’ This is a really shitty way to express a character’s feeling, because there's
nothing remotely visual or interesting about it. Instead, ditch the tag altogether and rely on
narrative to convey the emotion. ‘Jenna balled her hands into fists. “Dialogue tags stuck!”’
With this example we’ve created a visual to go along with a dialogue that perfectly illustrates
how the character is feeling, and is a lot more engaging to read. So that’s all l got for you
today. Or is it? Haha I tricked you. It's giveaway time. As I already mentioned, one lucky winner is
going to receive $799 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 comments. It can be a
text based heart, it can be an emoji heart, it can be one heart, it can be twents hearts—whatever. If
there is a heart somewhere in your comment, I will count it as an entry towards this giveaway. The
winner's credits can be used at any time until December 31, 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 to my channel. I post new videos on Wednesdays. And if you wanna 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 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 @JennaMoreci! Bye!
(Rumbling Male Voice) This is Brontes. Why, the FUCK,
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 for the birds to feast on it! Now, press the goddamn button, and the bell, too…