I've had similar discussions with people. The authors at my publishing company have an author forum, and we talked about that at one point. One person said he prefers to avoid dialogue tags whenever possible and simply use actions. Some people talked about using said vs. using other dialogue tags. And I've heard that you should only use appropriate dialogue tags--that if someone can't speak that way, it shouldn't be used. (Can you sigh a whole sentence? Then you shouldn't write a whole long sentence and have "he sighed". There was a gigantic list (an actual list on a website) of words that are commonly used as dialogue tags but are not actually dialogue tags.
But I also found out that this is a fairly new concept and not everyone follows it. I, personally, have all sorts of dialogue tags I use. I can't stand just using "said." I need other words to express the severity or intensity or just the general idea of how I hear someone speaking in my head. Say I read:
"I can't!" he exclaimed.
Well, maybe I don't need the exclaimed, because the exclamation point tells me it was exclaimed, but I could also have an exclamation for many other forms of saying something.
"I can't!" he shouted.
"I can't!" he cried.
"I can't!" he shrieked.
Etc., etc.
Also, my editor/publisher with over two decades of editing experience (including NYT bestsellers) didn't tell me I was doing it wrong. ;)
(On a random note, I remember writing a story when I was in third grade and reading it to my mother, and she was the first person who told me that I did NOT have to use 'said' all the time, but that I could use other words. That stuck with me and if I read a story that has nothing BUT said, it would stick out to me. It would certainly not be invisible.)
If someone wants to write that way, of course, it's entirely up to them, but I'll stick with my characters snapping, yelling, grumbling, moaning, and replying to things.
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chiming
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Date: 2011-02-14 02:36 pm (UTC)From:But I also found out that this is a fairly new concept and not everyone follows it. I, personally, have all sorts of dialogue tags I use. I can't stand just using "said." I need other words to express the severity or intensity or just the general idea of how I hear someone speaking in my head. Say I read:
"I can't!" he exclaimed.
Well, maybe I don't need the exclaimed, because the exclamation point tells me it was exclaimed, but I could also have an exclamation for many other forms of saying something.
"I can't!" he shouted.
"I can't!" he cried.
"I can't!" he shrieked.
Etc., etc.
Also, my editor/publisher with over two decades of editing experience (including NYT bestsellers) didn't tell me I was doing it wrong. ;)
(On a random note, I remember writing a story when I was in third grade and reading it to my mother, and she was the first person who told me that I did NOT have to use 'said' all the time, but that I could use other words. That stuck with me and if I read a story that has nothing BUT said, it would stick out to me. It would certainly not be invisible.)
If someone wants to write that way, of course, it's entirely up to them, but I'll stick with my characters snapping, yelling, grumbling, moaning, and replying to things.