Should I put character names in every line of dialogue?

[MrPopocap]

Listen, this is the just an example of what Im talkin about:

' To be honest, I would never think you, out of all people, would betray me.''

'' ... This is the result of your own choices... if you would've been a better ruler none of this would be happening.''

Zeus scoffed, ''Who should rule then? You? HAHAHA, don't make me laugh.''

'' Mortal changes their preference all the time, why can't Gods do the same? Besides, I wouldn't rule alone, I would actually listen to what the other Gods have to say and respect their opinion.''

'' Do you compare yourself to mortals? How many of them have you killed on whin or just for fun?''

Poseidon sighed, ''There will be a day when Death may come to take payment for my actions. But not today, not from you.''
----------------


As you can see, sometimes i didnt put the name Poseidon nor Zeus, thinking that the Reader would understand, but should i add their name to make more easy to understand or just leave like this?

 

[Representing_Tromba]

Depends on how many people are in the conversation and if it can make sense without the name.

 

[Deleted member 58005]

Not on every line. Just from reading it once I could understand which lines were spoken by Zeus and Poseidon.

The ever-so-often announcing of names helps me know that the speaker has finished speaking and the other person is giving their reply.

 

[RepresentingCaution]

As long as it's just two people, that's fine.

 

[Erysion]

You can usually tell who is speaking by the sentence structures and tone. Not everyone speaks the same way.

 

[MrPopocap]

Thanks for the advice!

 

[Deleted member 84247]

You can usually tell who is speaking by the sentence structures and tone. Not everyone speaks the same way.

Some characters have mannerisms and quirks that make them easily discernible. Like Petelgeuse from Re: Zero

 

[APieceOfRock]

Not every line. But it's good to put them in some lines. Have the characters react to what the other says instead of just writing pure conversations.

 

[SirDogeTheFirst]

You don't have to unless there are more than two people, and sometimes even when you have three or more, if their way of speaking is distinctive enough, you don't need to.

 

[MajorKerina]

With putting names in dialogue I say it’s whatever you can get away with and still be comprehensible. Example, Cormac McCarthy. You can always break the rules once you’re really good at the rules. If you ever feel like there’s ambiguity about the speaker, that’s typically where you want to clarify with a name.

 

[georgelee5786]

I think you can leave it like that. Just include their names every now and again.

 

[StainedGlassThreads]

Agree with previous people, if it's just two people it's fine. A bit of additional, albeit related, advice, leaving off the dialogue tags can give the impression that the characters are quickly trading dialogue and the conversation's moving at a fast pace, while adding longer descriptors between each bit of dialogue gives the opposite effect, that the conversation is slower, with each party taking time think to say their piece. It can affect the tone and mood a great deal. You decide which is more appropriate.

 

[Erios909]

General tip: read dialogue lines out loud to yourself. This will help you spot dialogue that might not make sense when spoken.
Then specifically pay attention to: can the reader easily tell who is speaking?
If yes, consider dropping the tag.
If no, then it is definitely need.
Ugh all those LN that are endless dialogue with no tags and multiple speakers xD

 

[ACertainPassingUser]

If it's conversation, then no.

But if it's history chat/chat log or something, then yes, you can use these kind of conversation :

Adam : Hey STUD!
Adam : LOL j/k
Duncan : Hey
Adam : Whats going on??
Adam : ;)
Duncan : Not much, brb

 

[IdleYoungMaster]

It depends on the context. For me, I tend to write the names once the conversation is a bit lengthy so as to remind the readers on who's speaking. If it's two people, it wasn't needed much. Though, you'll definitely have to consider doing this for three or more people. While their characteristics might be distinct, it might be a challenge for the select few (Basically context clues). I made this mistake early on in my work and only when it was pointed out did I realize it :v

 

[Le_ther]

Some characters have mannerisms and quirks that make them easily discernible. Like Petelgeuse from Re: Zero

Yeah or add like various lines unique to them like for everytime they finish a line to also differentiate them.

 

[Tsuru]

Just do whatever you think is better.

I recommend for you to go read some chinese novels, or "To aru majutsu" LNs, or the english webnovels of Andur on royalroad.

In short, read more, try more, poison-test more (by getting a irl person read it), fail more until you succeed more.

 

[TASTYLEADPAINT]

Listen, this is the just an example of what Im talkin about:

' To be honest, I would never think you, out of all people, would betray me.''

'' ... This is the result of your own choices... if you would've been a better ruler none of this would be happening.''

Zeus scoffed, ''Who should rule then? You? HAHAHA, don't make me laugh.''

'' Mortal changes their preference all the time, why can't Gods do the same? Besides, I wouldn't rule alone, I would actually listen to what the other Gods have to say and respect their opinion.''

'' Do you compare yourself to mortals? How many of them have you killed on whin or just for fun?''

Poseidon sighed, ''There will be a day when Death may come to take payment for my actions. But not today, not from you.''
----------------


As you can see, sometimes i didnt put the name Poseidon nor Zeus, thinking that the Reader would understand, but should i add their name to make more easy to understand or just leave like this?

If its 2 people you cam go without 3 or more I would start to state who is speaking

 

[RavenRunes]

If I have more than two participants in a conversation, I probably still won't tag each line of dialogue, only if what's being said is important that the MC is saying it. If it's a group conversation where some of the speakers are minor irrelevant characters, why bother tagging. They can trade anonymous ideas/banter a few times before I want my MC to speak again, and at that point I tag.
Your passage looked fine.

 

[AliceShiki]

Ugh all those LN that are endless dialogue with no tags and multiple speakers xD

For the record, Japanese webnovels don't have dialogue tags. You're expected to know who the speaker is based on context and speech quirks... The latter are almost always lost in translation though.

So... Good translations add dialogue tags to the translation, because you don't have the speech quirks to let you know who is speaking what. But if the fantranslation is being done by someone who wants to try staying truer to the raws, they'll usually not add the dialogue tags which... Can be quite messy.

So uhn... This is more of a quirk of the translation process than anything related to writing, really.