If the story has been set aside for several months, and you go back to it, can you be certain who is talking? How many times has “said” been said? Does vital information get passed via a data dump that rivals the (in)famous economics lecture in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off? It’s time for some dialogue work.

Beats, tags, and punctuation help readers (and writers) know who said what, and how they said it. Adverbs can also help, but with great care. “Hurry!” said Tom swiftly, and so on, moves with great alacrity from a tag to a joke.

Tags are “said,” “sighed” “asked,” and other words for speaking. Some writers, including the late Elmore Leonard, firmly believed that only “said” should be used in dialogue, and that other, better ways of showing mood, tone, and so on existed besides “yelled/yelped/whispered/hissed.” Not all of us write that way, and what worked for him might not work for you.

Beats describe motion, or things not in speech. So:

“Oh king, his words …” The herald hesitated, frowning. “He and his men did not look as noble lords – no shining metal, no fine horses.” The central bit describing the herald’s manner of speaking and gesture is a beat. It also tells the reader who is speaking, since there are several people talking in the scene from whence that line comes.

I try to blend beats and tags, or omit them if it is very, very clear who is speaking and how. Even then, after a few backs and forths, I toss in a beat or tag just to change the rhythm. I also change up where the tag or beat fall in the line, sometimes at the start, sometimes later. That’s just me, and some writers have everything at the end.

Your goal is to make the flow smooth, unless it needs to be rough. People rarely speak lines of the same length, starting the same way, in a normal conversation. Too, there are a lot of … pauses and—

Hesitations, let’s call them hesitations. Unless you are dealing with someone who is very polished, very smooth, and probably planned in advance how things should or might go in a conversation. Diplomats in the office speak a bit differently than they do at home with the spouse, kids, and pets. People who have known each other for a very long time develop short hands and references that everyone who was there knows, and that can seem like a thicket of mumbo-jumbo to outsiders. Your reader is an outsider, so the thicket needs a little pruning. Or not, if your POV character is the newcomer who is not sure if he needs this cryptic conversation or if he’s being blinded by bafflegab.

“Look, Red, that’s enough telling. you need to show,” the editor said, tapping her pencil against the monitor frame.

“I am showing by telling.” Red frowned. “That’s how I roll.”

“You’re data dumping. Stop.”

“If it’s well phrased and applicable, it is not‚—“

“Yes, it is.” The clipped phrase caught even the cat’s attention. J-Cat sat up and blinked as the editor said, “Tell, or by the Red Pencil of Crom, this will bleed so badly even EMS won’t save it.”

Teeth gritted, Red said, “All right. You win.” As the editor departed, Red muttered under her breath, “This time.”

https://www.rabbitwitharedpen.com/blog/writing-dialogue-tags-action-beats-punctuation