Tag, who's it?

One contest entry I received when I was first starting out as a writer had a cryptic comment in the margin. “Overuse of tags.”

What was a tag? I had no idea. Fortunately, I had someone I could ask. A tag is the use of phrases such as “he said,” or “Tom said,” and “she said,” or “Shelly said,” to identify who is speaking in the story.

The frequent use of the word “said” in writing is one time when repeating a word frequently (echo words) is not a bad thing. Readers barely notice tags unless they are used poorly.

Not every piece of dialogue needs a tag. If only two people are in the room you can limit them to every sixth line or so, but if there are three people in the room it gets more complicated. Here is an example of overuse.

Five year old Ryan said, “I can’t tie my shoes.”
His mother said, “Yes, you can, dear.”
Ryan replied, “No, I can’t.”
His mother dropped to her knees and said, “You know how to do this. What’s wrong?”

Placing narrative before or after the dialogue will identify who is speaking and tags aren’t necessary.

Five year old Ryan folded his arms. “I can’t tie my shoes”
His mother smiled at him. “Yes, you can, dear.”
“No, I can’t”
“You know how to do this. What’s wrong?” His mother dropped to her knees in front of him.

Okay. Let’s hear from some of you how you solve the issue of too many tags.
Pat