So, okay. I was recently chatting with some fellow authors and the subject of character tags came up.
It has been said that there should never be more than two characters in a conversation, or else the reader will get confused about who is saying what. Of the three of us, one firmly agreed with this “rule”, one firmly disagreed, and one (me) decided to go home and blog about it.
So, here’s an example of a multi-person conversation:
“Pass the salt, please.”
“No, pass it to me.”
“I need it.”
“I asked first.”
“No, you didn’t.”
“It’s my salt and I’m not passing it to anybody.”
How many characters were speaking? At least three (unless one of them has multiple personality disorder) and perhaps as many as six.
Let’s assume there are three: a father and his two sons. Throw in some character tags, and:
“Pass the salt, please,” Timmy said.
“No, pass it to me,” Jimmy said.
“I need it,” Timmy said.
“I asked first,” Jimmy said.
“No, you didn’t,” Timmy said.
“It’s my salt and I’m not passing it to anybody,” Keith said.
Timmy Jimmy Timmy Jimmy Timmy Keith. Boring.
OK, next there are those who say that after the first time you use a character’s name, you can substitute with the pronoun a time or two. So let’s try again.
“Pass the salt, please,” Timmy said.
“No, pass it to me,” Jimmy said.
“I need it,” he said.
“I asked first,” he said.
“No, you didn’t,” he said.
“It’s my salt and I’m not passing it to anybody,” Keith said.
Well, that was almost as bad as the version with *no* character tags. What if we switch the dialogue tags to action tags?
Jimmy dropped his fork onto the table. “Pass the salt, please.”
“No, pass it to me.” Timmy stuck out his hand.
Jimmy scowled at his brother. “I need it.”
Timmy smirked. “I asked first.”
“No, you didn’t.” Jimmy tugged at Timmy’s hair.
Keith closed his eyes. “It’s my salt and I’m not passing it to anybody.”
Better, in some ways–at least we now know who is doing what–but our fast paced dialogue slowed down a bit underneath all that action. Plus we were a bit heavy-handed with the scowling, smirking, and eye-closing.
There are some authors who suggest making each character speak differently enough that we don’t need a dialogue tag at all.
What if Keith is an uneducated single father, teenage Jimmy is a stereotypical surfer, and little Timmy is a third-grader missing his front two teeth?
“Yo Dad. Pass the salt, dude.”
“No, daddy. Path it to me!”
“Like, I need it.”
“I athked firth.”
“Look, dude, you totally didn’t.”
“This is daddy’s salt, boys, and I ain’t passing nothing to nobody.”
Our characters are still obnoxious, but at least we can tell them apart. Maybe now we can throw in a few of those action tags…
“Yo Dad.” Jimmy held out his hand. “Pass the salt, dude.”
“No, daddy. Path it to me!” Timmy stuck out his hand.
“Like, I need it.”
False innocence imbued Timmy’s gap-toothed smile with mischeif. “I athked firth.”
“Look, dude, you totally didn’t.”
Keith closed his eyes. “It’s daddy’s salt, boys, and I ain’t passing nothing to nobody.”
It’s no Gone With The Wind, but I bet they could have a dinner conversation for a few pages without the need to tack a character name after each bit of dialogue, or to confuse the reader with unclear pronouns (“he” said).
(Of course, I don’t recommend writing three pages about these characters at dinner… better come up with your own better, relevant characters first.)
Also, no multi-character conversations are possible without decent characterization in the first place.
Timmy can’t be eight years old — he must be missing his two front teeth. Jimmy can’t be a teenager — he must be hip deep in the pseudo-surfer lifestyle. Keith can’t just be a single father — he must have singular grammatical constructs of his own.
In fact, I’d venture to say that each and every character should be both unique and distinct.
Not just in case they wander into a dialogue with more than the recommended 2 conversationalists, but also to evoke their history and personality by paying attention to what they say and how they say it.
In other words, make sure your character *is* a character. =)
