These Are Not Tag Line Verbs

In Today’s Journal

* Blackwell Ops 47
* Blog Posts Are Letters
* These Are Not Tag Line Verbs
* Of Interest
* The Numbers

Blackwell Ops 47

Blackwell Ops 47: Sam Granger | Special Duty is live and available for preorder ($5.99) at Amazon and all the vendors supplied by Draft2Digital.

If you’d rather not wait, you may also buy it now from my online discount store for only $5.

Blog Posts Are Letters

Some would probably be happier if I cut back the number of TNDJ issues I post each week. But this stuff isn’t fiction. It’s about writing fiction.

Although I’d be thrilled to know that all of you were opening and reading TNDJ each morning, blog posts are like letters. They mostly don’t go out of date, and you can open and read them at your leisure.

And although I encourage comments and emails, again like letters, no response is required.

TNDJ is a big part of my legacy. I have so much information to pass along, it’s difficult to regulate the number of posts I publish per week. I want to get as much out to you as I can. Of course, what you use of it is up to you.

These Are Not Tag Line Verbs

It’s been a couple of years since I ran this, so I thought I’d run it again. For those who’ve seen it before, I’ve added a little to it. For those who haven’t, it can be eye-opening.

“[Character Name] piped up” is fine as a stand-alone sentence with a period after it, but it isn’t worth a whit as a tag line: a short sentence with a comma after it before the line of dialogue to indicate which character is speaking.

(Yes, you can put a tag line after the dialogue, but it’s usually better before.)

Announced, ASKED, exclaimed, implored, mumbled, murmured, muttered, quipped, remarked, responded, SAID, screamed, stammered, stated, yelled, uttered, muttered, mumbled—those are appropriate verbs for tag lines. Of those, “said” and “asked” are the best two, and you can use “said” to carry any sentence.

The verbs listed below are usually the result of some poor writer believing some moronic writing “guru” who says that tag lines should be “punched up” so they’re interesting.

That’s just dumb. You don’t WANT the tag line to be interesting. The tag line’s only purpose is to identify, as quickly and as quietly as possible, which character’s speaking, and then let the reader get back to the dialogue.

“So I see. Well, it’s not too bad,” she sentenced.

“C’mon, Sharon, give me the knife,” he ejaculated.

Um, no. Ugh.

Before I knew better, I probably used argued, blathered, chimed, shrieked, shrilled, screeched, squealed, smirked, and so on. I confess even to having used “huffed” in tag lines.

All of these and more are fine in stand-alone brief descriptive narratives, but not as tag lines.

Okay, here’s a big lesson and then a bit of fun: A tag line consists of a noun or a pronoun plus a verb That Indicates a Form of Utterance. Again, the best tag line verb is “said.”

None of the following verbs (all of which I’ve seen used in tag lines and most of which are transitive verbs, meaning they need an actual or implied direct object) indicate a form of utterance:

• accused, acknowledged, admonished, affirmed, amended, amplified, announced, answered, argued, assured, attacked, attempted,
• balked, beamed, blathered, blurted, blustered, bossed, brayed, broke in, brooded, brought up, bubbled, burlesqued, burst out,
• cajoled, called, called out, came back, cautioned, challenged, chastised, cheered, chided, chimed, chimed in, chirped, chirped in, choked, chortled, chorused, chuckled, clarified, coached, coaxed, commanded, commented, commiserated, complained, complimented, conceded, concluded, consoled, continued, contributed, corrected, correcting, countered, cracked, criticized, crooned, cursed, cut in,
• defended, delivered, delved, digressed, denied,
• editorialized, ejaculated, encouraged, ended, enjoined, enlightened, enquired, enthused, eructated, evaded, exhaled, expostulated, extemporized,
• filled-in, finished, fished, flicked, flicked-in, fly casted, followed, frowned, frowning,
• galloped on, gave, gave him/her, gave him/her back, gave out, giggled, got out, greeted, grinned, griped, gripped, groused, grumbled, gushed,
• harrumphed, hazarded, heaped on, hedged, helped out, huffed,
• identified, improvised, informed, instructed, interrupted, intoned, invited,
• jumped in, justified,
• kicked out, laughed,
• lectured, maintained, managed, modified, morosed, mouthed,
• nagged, nibbled, nitpicked,
• objected, offered, oozed, opened, opined, ordered, owned up,
• paddled back, persisted, piped in, piped up, placated, played back, pointed out, pontificated, postulated, pounced, pressed, prodded, promenaded on, prompted, pronounced, protested, protracted, pushed, put in,
• quavered, questioned, quipped,
• rattled on, reasoned, reassured, recommended, reminded, reposted, resumed, retorted, returned, revealed, ridiculed,
• scolded, screeched, seconded, sentenced, shot, shrieked, shrilled, sighed, sleazed, smiled, smirked, snapped, sneered, snarled, snickered, sniffed, sobbed, spat, spat out, speculated, spewed, spoke up, spouted, squealed, started, started out, started out full throttle, stumbled, submitted, suggested, sulked, summarized, supplied, susurrated, syruped out,
• talked on, teased, telegraphed, temporized, testified, threatened, told him/her, tossed, touted, tried, trilled, trotted out, trumped, tumbled out,
• ventured, vocalized, voiced, volumed (and volumated and volumized, I’m not kidding), volunteered,
• warbled, warned, waved, went on, worried.

And yes, I add to the list as I encounter new misuses. If you’ve seen any others, please let me know so I may add them to the list.

And please don’t email me to say “Famous Writer So and So uses verbs like these in tag lines all the time, so it must be all right to do so.” I’m aware some of them do, and it still isn’t.

As always, of course, do whatever you want. But your primary job, in addition to telling a good story, is to not divert the reader’s attention from that story.

But don’t be surprised if a reader, owing to an over-the-top tag line verb, busts a gut laughing at what was supposed to be a serious passage.

Talk with you again soon.

Of Interest

Dr. Mardy’s Quotes on Writers: On Themselves and Their Work Mardy wrote “… it occurred to me that any of your subscribers who are looking for ‘ideas’ for a short story or novel will find plenty of inspiration by perusing the personal reflections of these authors.”

One Challenge Aside, Maybe Another One Coming

Frank Theodat’s Pulp on the Edge Check this out. Frank is a good writer and storyteller.

The Numbers

The Journal…………………………… 1030

Writing of Blackwell Ops 48: Razor Sharpe

Day 1…… 2213 words. To date…… 2213

Fiction for September……………… 27773
Fiction for 2025…………………….. 561922
Nonfiction for September.………… 19380
Nonfiction for 2025………………… 205630
2025 consumable words………….. 759938

2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 14
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 32
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………….. 118
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 302
Short story collections……………………. 29