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Q&A

Confused about when to treat something as a dialogue tag

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Background: I'm helping a friend edit their fiction. I'm frequently left confused on anything related to dialogue tags.

“Yes, but I mean no,” Steve stumbles over his words. “Not the come home part.”

As far as I can tell, "stumbles over his words" is being treated as a dialogue tag because of the comma in "Yes, but I mean no,". Is that correct?

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This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/41640. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

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A sentence can indicate who is speaking without being attached by a comma.

“Yes, but I mean no.” Steve stumbles over his words. “Not the come home part.”

In this instance, Steve stumbles over his words. is a complete sentence which interrupts the dialogue, which consists of two complete sentences. It's clear who is speaking, so you don't have to add he said or the like. Use a period at the end of the first sentence of dialogue.

You use a comma to attach dialogue to a narrative tag, which may or may not be a complete sentence.

"Yes, but I mean no," says Steve.

He says, "Yes, but I mean no."

"Yes, but I mean no," he stammers.

"Yes, but I mean no," Steve stammers, watching Bucky's face.

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