Writing effective, compelling dialogue has multiple elements. Tags (like name tags) identify. A dialogue tag is selection of words following quoted speech (e.g. ‘she said’), identifying who spoke and/or how they spoke. Other words for ‘said’ can indicate: Volume (e.g. yelled, shouted, bellowed, screamed, whispered) Tone or pitch (e.g. shrieked, groaned, squeaked) Emotion (e.g.