Punctuation: Action Beats vs. Dialogue Tags
As a fiction editor, how to punctuate action beats, dialogue, and dialogue tags is one of the most common issues I see daily.
Let’s dive right into the very basics of dialogue tag and action beat punctuation.
Punctuation can be tricky!
Don’t let commas, full stops, and others trip you up from writing clean, easy-to-read dialogue.
Action Beat Punctuation
First, let’s get something straight.
Action beats are not synonymous with dialogue tags.
Action beats tell your readers what your characters are doing on the page. When paired in the same paragraph as dialogue, they can come before, after, in the middle, and they can also interrupt dialogue.
Example (pulled from my current read The Windsor Knot by SJ Bennet—which is a fun, cozy mystery with Queen Elizabeth II playing detective):
Action beats can standalone:
The Queen nodded.
Action beats can come after dialogue:
“Your wish is my command.” He grinned, making her heart melt with clockwork precision, and strode to the door.
Action beats can come before dialogue:
The Queen threw him a look. “They forget. I’ve lived through a world war, that Ferguson girl, and you in the navy.”
Action beats can come in the middle of two pieces of dialogue:
“Don’t worry, Cabbage, they love that little old lady.” He rose stiffly from his chair. “Don’t forget, I’m off to Scotland later. The salmon’s spectacular this year.”
Action beats interrupting dialogue:
“One of the housekeepers. Someone noticed he wasn’t at breakfast and”—he paused fractionally, to remember the name—“Mrs. Cobbold went to check if he was awake.”
Dialogue Tag Punctuation
Now that I’ve told you my embarrassing educational moment when it came to dialogue punctuation, you know to never punctuate your dialogue tag with an exclamation point or question mark.
But let’s get deeper into it.
Dialogue tags tell readers who is speaking and sometimes how they’re speaking. The how plays into things when we get a little bit creative (or too unique) with our tags.
Please don’t get too unique too often.
Dialogue tags either begin or end a piece of dialogue, or they can come smack dap in the middle. The placements are the same as action beats, which is where I think the confusion may stem from, but it’s the punctuation that’s different.
Tags are a part of the dialogue phrase, not separate like action beats.
Here are the examples (still pulled from The Windsor Knot):
Dialogue can of course stand alone:
“Not in one of my palaces.”
Dialogue tags can come after the dialogue (most common):
“It looks like he’s upping the game, ma’am. Perhaps he wanted to send us a message,” he persisted.
Dialogue tags can come before the dialogue:
The archbishop asked, “Was he here last night?”
Dialogue tags can come between a piece of dialogue that is one full sentence:
“Actually,” she said, as he bent to drop a kiss on her forehead, “I wouldn’t mind some fudge.
“But even if it’s true,” the footman said, “why are they prowling around at night?”
Notice the comma at the end of the tag. The reason for using a comma is due to the first piece of dialogue being a continuation of the second piece of dialogue.
Dialogue tags can come between two pieces of dialogue:
“For God’s sake, who?” the footman protested. “He could’ve been getting it on with one of those girls who came.”
To Wrap Up
There are, of course, a lot of nuances in writing, but when it comes to grammar the rules are pretty much set in stone.
That is until The Chicago Manual of Style decides to update or change things around. But I feel pretty confident that these punctuation guidelines will remain as they are in our lifetimes.