Action Beats

What are action beats?

Action beats are a replacement for dialogue tags to show the action the character takes during or after speaking. Here’s an example of some dialogue with action beats in bold.

            “I would never hurt you.” Alex stepped closer.

            “And why am I supposed to believe you?” Rory said.

            “Please.” She looked away. “I never meant for this to happen.”

How can I use action beats well?

1. Show the reader inner thoughts that can’t be spoken aloud.

If the character is saying things they don’t believe, action beats are a great way to indicate that. For example, imagine a scene where a character is on a date. See below for an example of a scene with dialogue only.

“So, how is work going?”

“Oh, it’s great. Thanks for asking. How’s work for you?”

“Really good. We landed a new client today.”

“Congratulations.”

Other than boring, this date seems to be going okay. Now, if we add in dialogue tags, we get a different picture.

“So, how is work going?”

She checked her watch again, looking for an escape route. How much longer could this night go on? “Oh, it’s great. Thanks for asking.” She looked down and saw shreds of her paper napkin from tearing it apart in her lap. She needed another napkin to tear up if she was going to get through five more minutes of this. Something to keep her distracted. “How’s work for you?”

“Really good. We landed a new client today.”

“Congratulations.” She gestured to the restroom as she stood up and hurried away.

The dialogue alone might indicate the date is going well enough, but then add in action beats and we find out it is going terribly. We only get this picture from the action beats.

2. Reduce repetitive dialogue tags.

When multiple people are in the room talking, it’s important to indicate the speaker often. Unless it’s absolutely clear who’s talking, you’ll need to say who it is. Rather than using “he said,” “she asked,” “they replied” so often that it’s annoying, you can use action tags to explain what they’re doing. As a general rule of thumb, if there is a ling of dialog, then in the same paragraph, someone does something, it’s assumed that person was the one speaking. For example,

            “I’ll just swing by and grab cupcakes for the party.” Natalie grabbed her keys and purse.

It can be assumed that Natalie is the one who said the line of dialog. This can be a useful tool to avoid repetition of dialogue tags and to show the reader what the scene looks like.

Tip: Remember to start a new paragraph when addressing a new TiPToP (Time, Place, Topic, Person).

3. Avoid talking-head syndrome.

When you read a ton of lines of dialogue in a row and multiple conversational minutes pass in this fictional world, the reader has a hard time picturing the scene because the scene is only words. What does it look like? No one knows. What about the other senses? We only know what it sounds like. That’s kind of hard for the reader to imagine.

Add in action beats to show what the characters are doing while they’re speaking. Do they sit down? Stand up? Fix their hair? Pet a dog? Take a sip of bitter coffee? Maybe it’s delicious coffee. What do they do? Tell us! This creates a more well-rounded scene for the reader to picture and get lost in.

How do I format action beats?

If the action beat comes at the end of a spoken sentence:

Use a period rather than a comma (like for dialogue tags) at the end of dialog. The action beat is not attached to the dialogue in any way other than it being physically next to it. Here’s an example:

“Strawberry smoothie, please.” I pulled out my wallet to pay. “No receipt.”

If the action beat comes in the middle of a spoken sentence:

Use dashes. The dashes go outside the quotation marks to indicate a break in the dialogue for the action beat. When the dialogue resumes, use a lowercase letter to start. Here’s an example:

“Can I please”—I pulled out my wallet to pay—“have the strawberry smoothie? No receipt.”

No spaces go around the dashes either. Microsoft Word doesn’t like when you do this, so anticipate seeing blue underlines. Just ignore it though. You’re right! For more info about how to use dashes, visit this blog post.

For more information about how to format dialogue punctuation, see these blog posts for US style and UK style!

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