Beat Builder

This worksheet instructs students to replace repetitive “said” tags with clear action beats that reveal what characters are doing while speaking. Each dialogue line is provided with a simple “said” tag, and students rewrite the tag as a movement, gesture, or body-language cue. This teaches students how to show character behavior and mood indirectly. The activity also reduces dependency on dialogue tags and improves sentence variety. Students learn how action beats enrich scenes and make dialogue more expressive.

Curriculum Matched Skills

English Language Arts – Using Action Beats Instead of Tags

Writing – Showing Character Emotion and Intent

Narrative Techniques – Body Language and Movement in Dialogue

Editing – Replacing Weak Dialogue Tags

This worksheet is part of our Dialogue Writing Worksheets collection.