Any work of fiction can be improved with the judicious use of action tags. As their name implies, action tags show characters engaging in some sort of physical action. They’re used in conjunction with dialogue. Here are a couple of examples, first a simple one and then one that’s a bit more descriptive:

     He nodded. “I saw that in the newspaper.”

     He loosened his tie and sank further into his chair. “So, how did it go?”

Although I prefer the term action tag, I’ve heard them called action beats or just beats. Here is why we should use them.

They provide insight into your characters

Readers need to know what your characters’ personalities are, but if we want to show a character is compassionate we shouldn’t write, “He cares about people.” Write instead:

     “Please take this.” He opened his wallet and pulled out five $20 bills.

Now we know what kind of man he is.

Or you can use action tags to show a character is not what he claims to be.

     “I’m innocent.” His eyes shifted. “I was at work when the murder occurred.”

They help us show instead of tell

Instead of writing He looked impatient, write He tapped his foot. One caveat: Don’t both show and tell. Don’t write, He tapped his foot impatiently. You already showed his impatience; don’t tell us.

They provide variety

Good writing employs diverse terminology. We don’t want endless successions of he said and she said or even their synonyms. Substitute action tags. Who would want to read this?

     “I have good news,” he said.

     “Oh, really?” she said.

     “Yes,” he replied. “I got a promotion.”

     “That’s wonderful,” she gushed.

Instead, write:

     “I have good news,” he said.

     She arched her eyebrows. “Oh, really?”

     “Yes.” A smile spread over his face. “I got a promotion.”

     She jumped into his arms. “That’s wonderful!”

Be sure to use action tags to replace dialogue tags, not in addition to them. We wouldn’t write this:

     She arched her eyebrows and said, “Oh, really?”

They’re more vivid than dialog tags

Not only can action tags replace dialog tags, when they do they help readers form a mental picture of the scene. The following dialogue doesn’t give us an image in our minds:

      “What happened to you?” she asked.

“I just chased the dog for half a mile and I’m exhausted,” he replied.

In contrast, action tags let us see a tangible picture.

      Her eyes widened. “What happened to you?”

      “I just chased the dog for half a mile.” He flopped on the bed.

They help readers comprehend the setting

Say that two characters work in a television newsroom. Use action tags as they converse to show a typical scene to give your readers an idea of what happens in the news business. Here’s an example. An employee is reading an incoming email and he says to his colleague . . .

     “What story are Sam and Lisa working on?”

     “It’s the ‘kid raises $500 for charity’ feature.”

     He hit the email ‘forward’ button. “We’re going to need to take them off that story.”

     She reached for the ringing phone. “Why? What’s going on?”

They help avoid confusion about who’s speaking

I’ve seen stories where two or more characters converse a long time without interruption. Sometimes I’m confused about who’s saying what. Action tags tell us. Here’s a two-person conversation:

     “What’s up?”

     “Same old stuff.”

     “You been busy?”

     “Not really.”

     “Being retired must be great.”

     “Yes, but you have to work at it.”

Even in that short conversation, we might get confused about who’s speaking. A couple of prudently placed action tags clear it up.

     “What’s up?”

     He yawned. “Same old stuff.”

     “You been busy?”

     “Not really.”

     She smiled. “Being retired must be great.”

     “Yes, but you have to work at it.”

They give readers a break

Dialogue requires involvement on the part of readers. They must concentrate to get the most out of the conversation, and people can only focus for so long. Give them a break with action tags. Read the above two conversations again. Which one holds your interest more?

They show your characters’ state of mind

One perennial problem writers face is how to let readers know what multiple characters are thinking. We need to avoid “head-hopping,” which is showing thoughts in more than one character’s mind. Action tags help us show what a character is thinking without having to get into their head. Say we want to show that a man is doubting someone’s word, but we don’t want to write he thought. There’s an action tag that shows us he’s skeptical.

     “You say you’re late because you had a flat tire.” He crossed his arms. “Which wheel?”

Now that we have seen the reasons for using action tags, let’s look at how to format them. Action tags may be placed before dialogue, in the middle of it, or afterward. Carefully follow these examples in both punctuation and capitalization:

Before dialogue:

     His eyes shifted. “I’m innocent. I was at work when the murder occurred.”

We have three complete sentences, so we need a period after each one and of course quotation marks around the dialogue.

In the middle of complete sentences:

     “I’m innocent.” His eyes shifted. “I was at work when the murder occurred.”

The format is the same as above.

If we’re interrupting dialogue:

     “I’m innocent. I was at”—his eyes shifted—“work when the murder occurred.”

Here we need the em dash to set the action tag apart from the dialogue. (Hint: to create an em dash in Microsoft Word hold down the “Ctrl” and “Alt” keys and then hit the minus key on the numeric keypad.)

After dialogue:

     “I was at work when the murder occurred.” His eyes shifted.

Be careful here. If we were using a dialogue tag such as he said we’d use a comma after occurred. But with an action tag, we use a period.

Here is one final tip for using action tags: be resourceful in your choice of terms. Some action tags do little to move the story along, as in this example.

     “I know, Marcia. You think I spend too much time on my phone.” He frowned. “But I like playing games.”

This is better because it’s more descriptive:

     “I know, Marcia. You think I spend too much time on my phone.” His eyes returned involuntarily to the screen. “But I like playing games.”

Here’s a good exercise: go through your manuscript looking for said and its synonyms. Replace some of those occurrences with action tags and your writing will become more compelling.