Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

50%
+0 −0
Q&A Do we have to introduce the character's name before using their names in a dialogue tag?

The only issue to worry about is that your reader knows who is speaking and can remember who the characters are scene to scene. How you accomplish this is up to you. That being said, it's a littl...

posted 5y ago by Cyn‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-20T00:40:47Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/46791
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T12:30:43Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/46791
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T12:30:43Z (over 4 years ago)
The only issue to worry about is that your reader knows who is speaking and can remember who the characters are scene to scene.

_How_ you accomplish this is up to you.

That being said, it's a little weird to have "the man" and "John" so close together. So I'd shake it up slightly. An easy way would be to leave off the "said John" tag (that's easy because it's obvious to the reader he's the one talking there).

> "My name is John!" the man said.
> 
> "Happy to meet you!" said Matthew.
> 
> "Likewise!"

You can also play around with the "the man" part.

> Matthew walked up to a tall young man with a bright purple tie who introduced himself as John.
> 
> "Happy to meet you!" Matthew said.
> 
> "Likewise!"

If you want to obscure the person's name and gender, you can do that too.

> Matthew walked up to one of the new interns who was balancing a plate in one hand and a cup of something steaming in the other.
> 
> "Happy to meet you!" Matthew said.
> 
> "Likewise! I'm John by the way."

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2019-07-21T20:03:55Z (almost 5 years ago)
Original score: 9