Question about Dialogue tags

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Okay. Im huge into writing. Lets just leave it at that. But something kind of confuses me and i always forget to ask my fiction professors about it.


is there any REAL difference between these two statements.

"Hey." Said Connor.

"Hey." Connor said.

Like is either way considered pretentiously better, or does it just matter in regards to the flow of reading and such.

Writing dialogue is always a pain in the ass. To me, mostly because we use an entirely different system here..

yeah. Agreed.


i know it helps me to write stories I WOULD NEVER WRITE



like im a 21 year old male, poor and going to college.


So i wrote a short story almost entirely made up of dialogue of two forty year old really rich women drinking cosmos at a bar.

And after finishing it, i thought i understood a little more,


I also took this amazing linguistics class. Which helped a lot. Because it makes dialogue more scientific and logical hence, easier to write.

But i understand. I'll read some of what i write dialogue. And be like. Jesus only i would say this.

I think it ultimately has to come down to what flows gracefully when read and maintains forward momentum.

Its funny how many of those absolute rules of grammar and sentence structure you were forced to learn in High School go right out the window when you're writing fiction for an audience. Adhering slavishly to some of those 'carved in granite' rules would be akin to putting speed bumps on a racetrack. They break the hypnosis - jar the reader out of that willful suspension of disbelief by throwing a flag in their face.

its good to know the rules though. I mean, i like that you can do whatever you want in fiction, but ultimately, breaking grammar rules and such has to have a purpose. If you don't understand the rules in the first place then it will be more difficult.


But with all things writing there are of course exceptions. I doubt Cobain truly understood what he was creating when he wrote smells like team spirit

According to the movie in my head when I read:

"Hey." Said Connor. This is almost has an exclamation mark, but not quite. It conveys urgency.

"Hey." Connor said. This is quiet and has no urgency.

But Willard is right.

Either one could be used interchangeably. It just depends on your style and the tone you want to create, but most modern authors prefer to drop the tags altogether unless they are absolutely necessary. However, both of those should be commas, not periods:

"Hey," Connor said.
"Hey," said Connor.

The tags in both of these examples would be sentence fragments on their own, and are part of the same thought as the sentence.

"Hey," Connor said, lifting his chin toward the Cute Girl in greeting.
"Hey!" Connor slammed his racket on the ground.

In these examples, the first tag is still connected with the dialogue while the second is followed by an action that is a complete thought. Comma on the first, exclamation or period on the second. Hope that helps.