Chapter six is the argument in the kitchen. Ben's voice is low and tired, Alice's is quick and sharp, and the listener knows who is talking from the first syllable. Then the narrator says "Alice said." Then "Ben asked." Then "Alice said" again. On the page, those dialogue tags kept the reader on track. In a full-cast audiobook they tell the listener what the voices already did.
Whether to keep them is an adaptation call, and it's yours to make. Here is how to cut the dialogue tags from your audiobook, one chapter at a time or across the whole book, and how to bring them back.
The short answer
Open the chapter in the studio, open Martin, and give the note the way you'd give it to a director:
Drop the "she said" and "he asked" tags in this chapter. The voices make it clear who's talking.
Martin takes every plain dialogue tag out of the chapter. You press play on the argument and hear it go from voice to voice, with the narrator stepping in only where the story needs a narrator. No line is recorded again, nothing is deleted from your text, and "bring the tags back" puts them back.
That's the whole loop: the note, the change, the result. Martin is the AI audio director built into the Midsummerr studio, and Midsummerr is the only audiobook platform with one. It works on the chapter you're listening to, with the cast and the mix already in place, so a note about tags leaves every performance as it is. More on the studio is on the features page.
Ready to try it on your own book?
Start with 5,000words free →What you can ask for
Dialogue tags come in two kinds. Plain tags only say who spoke: "said", "asked", "replied". Descriptive tags also say how: "whispered softly", "said with urgency". Martin can cut either kind across a chapter, or one tag at a time.
| Your note | What Martin changes | What you hear |
|---|---|---|
| "Drop the plain tags in this chapter" | Every "said", "asked" and "replied" tag in the chapter | The dialogue, voice to voice |
| "Lose the descriptive tags too" | Every tag like "whispered softly" in the chapter | The whisper, without the narrator announcing it |
| "Cut 'Ben said' after his first line in the kitchen" | That one tag | The same scene, one tag lighter |
| "Bring the plain tags back" | Shows them again | The chapter as it was |
| "Cut the line about the clock ticking" | Nothing yet: it shows you the exact sentence to approve | The line goes only after you click Approve |
The last row is the boundary. A dialogue tag is attribution, and Martin cuts it on your word. A line of narration is part of your story, so if a note would remove one, Martin shows you the exact sentence on an approval card and waits for your click.
Which tags to cut
Not every tag is dead weight, even in a full cast. A few rules of thumb:
- Cut the tag that repeats the voice. "Ben said" after a line in Ben's voice tells the listener nothing new.
- Keep the tag that introduces someone. The first time a character speaks, the tag names a voice the listener hasn't met yet.
- Listen before you cut a descriptive tag. "She whispered" is only redundant if the line is whispered. Play it first. If the delivery isn't there yet, ask Martin to direct the line ("let her whisper this") and cut the tag once it is. The line note is covered in how to change one line of your audiobook.
- Trust the cast in a crowded room. A scene with six people talking is where distinct voices earn their keep, and where tag-free dialogue works well in audio. The mystery and detective production guide covers why.
How much of the page to keep is the old adaptation question. Read every tag aloud between the actors and the production can sound like a recording of the book rather than a performance of it; cut the narrator back too far and you lose the voice that holds the story together. That argument is in why full-cast audiobooks keep losing the narrator. Dialogue tags are where most authors draw that line, chapter by chapter.
When the note is about the whole book
A tag note in chapter one is usually a note about the book. The book's settings page has a Dialogue tags section with three switches, and Martin can set them for you:
- Skip tags when the same character keeps talking. A "said" that falls between two lines by the same character drops out.
- Skip all plain tags. Every said, asked and replied.
- Skip descriptive tags. Whispered softly, said with urgency, and the like.
Every chapter you produce after saving follows the new rule. Chapters you've already produced keep their audio until you apply it, either from Update finished chapters on the settings page (every finished chapter, or the ones you pick) or by approving the card Martin sends up, which says how many chapters it touches. The voices, their speed and their delivery stay the same. Anything you hid or showed by hand inside a single chapter resets to match the book's settings, pauses you edited by hand are kept, and applying the settings costs no credits.
Doing it by hand
Every line on the chapter's timeline opens in the line editor, where Hide from mix takes it out of the chapter and a second click puts it back. That's the quickest way to cut a single tag you can already see. Martin is faster when the note covers a whole chapter's worth of tags, or when you know the scene but not where the tag sits on the timeline. Book-wide, the three switches are on the settings page under Dialogue tags.
Hear a full cast first
To hear how much a full cast carries on its own, listen to The Road to Oz, produced in Midsummerr with 42 speaking parts, each on a voice of its own. Some of its dialogue tags were cut in the studio and most were kept. The production is written up in its spotlight.
Try it on your own chapter
Start a book on Full Cast or Full Production (the first 5,000 words are free), produce a chapter with a real conversation in it, and listen for the tags. When one says what the voice already told you, open Martin and tell it. Cutting and restoring tags is free, as often as it takes.
FAQ
Does cutting dialogue tags regenerate the chapter?
No. The tags drop out of the chapter and the dialogue closes up around them. No line is recorded again, and the voices stay exactly as they are.
Can I get the tags back?
Yes. Ask Martin to bring them back, or open a tag in the line editor and click Hidden from mix to show it again. A cut tag stays in your text, so nothing is lost.
Does it cost credits to cut dialogue tags?
No. Cutting or restoring tags, in one chapter or across the book, costs no credits, and neither does applying the book's settings to the chapters you've already produced.
Should I cut dialogue tags in a Single Narrator audiobook?
Fewer of them, if any. In a Single Narrator book one voice reads every part, so the tags do more of the work of telling the listener who is speaking. The same switches and the same Martin notes work on Single Narrator, Full Cast and Full Production books alike; the case for using them is strongest in a full cast.
Does cutting a tag change my book's text?
No. The tag stays in your manuscript and in the chapter's text; it's only left out of the audio. A listener following along in the e-book will notice the audio skip those words, so decide how close to the page you want the edition to stay.
