What are... action tags?

A phrase included before, between, or after dialogue to indicate who is speaking by using the actions the speaker performs. Examples of dialogue tags include: Jane nodded, Marcus drummed his fingers, Lily pursed her lips.  Sometimes called action beats.

Action Tag Punctuation

So... On the bright side, action tag punctuation is MUCH easier to remember than dialogue tag punctuation.  With dialogue tags, you have that whole complicated comma situation, and you have to remember to not capitalize pronouns and ugh.  So much work.

But with action tags, you don't have to do any of that!  Wanna know why?

Because action tags are just sentences after the dialogue that are called tags because their purpose is to show who is talking through what they're doing!  You follow all the basic rules that you would any new sentence.

Capital letter at the start. Must be a complete sentence (unless, ya know, intentionally not).  Any previous sentence before it must end with a period, question mark, exclamation mark, or fancy smancy punctuation we will get into later.

You know the one thing it doesn't follow?  A comma.  Comma are only used at the end of dialogue for a dialogue tag.  Never for an action tag.  I am going to use an insanely popular example of something people like.

"You can't stop me," she smirked. (WRONG!!)

"You can't stop me."  She smirked. (RIGHT!!)

That is literally all you need to know about action tag punctuation.  It is not a dialogue tag.  Do not use commas.

Like with the previous example and as I have said, an action tag is treated as its own sentence.  As such, the lower cased pronouns do not apply with them.  Here are examples of correct action tags following the two other common punctuation:

"You can't be serious!" He ran a hand through his hair.

"Why did you wake us up this early?" The girl rubbed her eyes and yawned.

See?  Normal sentence rules.  Simple.  Just never use it following a comma.  If you use it following a comma, you are wrong ^.^ Stop it right now.

Why Use an Action Tag? 

Dialogue tags can be so simple to use.  You say who said what, the reader knows, you move on with your life.  Easy, to the point, everyone understands who says what, we're all good.

However, I'm going to let you in on a secret: dialogue tags are telling.  That's why they're so simple.  You are simply telling your audience who is saying what.  And telling has its place, yes, which is why we use dialogue tags so often.  

Action tags fall on the opposite end of the spectrum.  They show the reader two things.  The first, obvious thing is who is talking.  The second thing, though, is the actions which indicate the thoughts and feelings of the one talking.  

For example: 

"This is what you're wearing?"  Miranda shook her head and clucked her tongue as she examined the dress.

I could just say "Miranda asked incredulously", and although I don't entirely agree with the school of thought of always avoiding adverbs... There was a way to show Miranda's way of speaking.  Obviously Miranda isn't all that happy with her friend's choice of wear.  We could also easily change this to make it approving.

"This is what you're wearing?"  Miranda let out a low whistle, eyes wide as she took in the dress.

And if you think about it... Both ways could have been followed by "Miranda asked incredulously" and have different meanings because you don't know if it's a good or bad incredulous.  The action tags leave a lot less ambiguity while showing what Miranda is doing AND showing that she is the one speaking.  

This said, you need to be sure to avoid a trap that a lot of writers fall prey to (besides the comma instead of a period):

"This is what you're wearing?"  Lindsey had walked in wearing a bright pink dress with random patches of orange.  Miranda gaped at her.

So... Who spoke?  Lindsey and her action is the first person to appear after the dialogue, and she has action with her, so it should be her?  But the sentence makes more sense with what Miranda said...  

See the issue?  Make sure that the action of the speaker follows the dialogue.  If you want to use something similar to the above example, separate the dialogue and the action into two paragraphs.  

"This is what you're wearing?"

Lindsey had walked in wearing a bright pink dress with random patches of orange.  "Yeah?"

Miranda gaped, unable to believe her eyes.  "Really?"

With this example, you get a sense of who the first speaker was, still keep the same actions, and get to add in a bit more dialogue.

Is This An Action Tag?

So, sometimes people get confused as to what is and isn't an action tag.  Let's go over a quick way to tell:

Dialogue tags are only verbs that describe directly the way something was said through a basic "he spoke" structure.  

Action tags are when you describe the actions done by the person.

With that explanation, here is a small example of things that trip people up:

***Taylor smiled.

***he spoke in a quiet voice.

***she laughed/groaned/sighed

I'm going to get the first one out of the way because it's the least complicated.  IT IS AN ACTION TAG.  You cannot "smile" words.  You can sometimes hear a smile in the words because it can change how you speak, but you are not smiling the words.  The action you are doing is changing the way you speak.  Smiling and smirking ARE ACTION TAGS.  Sneering is a bit different because the definition is "smile or speak in a contemptuous or mocking manner."  The definition literally says it ca be a facial expression or way of speaking.  Do you see any indication of speaking in the definition of smirk? "Smile in an irritatingly smug, conceited, or silly way."  No?  DON'T USE IT AS A DIALOGUE TAG.

Okay, rant over.  Moving on to the next two.  They're tricky, because here is where the line between dialogue tag and action tag gets the most blurred.

***he spoke in a quiet voice ---> This one needs to be a way of describing dialogue in a way you wouldn't use for a dialogue tag.  Change it to "said" or "muttered" and you get a dialogue tag.  The reason this isn't a dialogue tag is because it is not stating that someone put words into existence.  It is more the character doing something in a certain way.  

***she laughed/groaned/sighed ---> Now, this one is actually up to debate because some people say these are always action tags.  However, I challenge that with "if you can legitimately laugh/groan/sigh the sentence, it is a dialogue tag."  Where people get mixed up is putting these tags at the end of a huge sentence or paragraph.  For you to laugh/groan/sigh a word, it can't be long.  Imagine sighing 10 words.  Here are examples of dialogue I could see the tags being justifiably dialogue tags.

"You dork," she laughed.

"Fine," he sighed.

"Why me?" Taylor groaned.

You can actually laugh/sigh/groan these words.  And seeing as you are describing the way in which someone "said" something... Boom.  Dialogue tags.

Combinations

Now, you don't have to use action tags and dialogue tags separately.  You can combine them in two ways: separate sentences or a single sentence.  The only requirement is that the dialogue tag comes first.

"Are we done here?" Derick asked.  He dropped his chin into his hand and stared at the clock. (separate sentences)

"Are we done here?" Derick asked.  He needed to get home to watch the big game, something this dumb meeting might stop him from doing.

"Are we done here?" Derick asked, dropping his chin into his hand and staring at the clock. (single sentence)

"Are we done here?" Derick asked as he tapped his foot. (single sentence)

"Are we done here?" Derick asked with a raised brow. (single sentence)

So, there are many ways to combine dialogue tags with action tags.  

Miscellaneous

As you might have noticed, "action" tag can be misleading.  Sometimes instead of describing action, they give the character's feelings.  Derick did not want to miss that game.

I believe that it is!  If we missed anything, please let us know!  Sometimes there are so many facts to know that some just slip our mind.  We hope you found this article useful :)  And remember: never stop dreaming.