I don't really like those adaptations, personally.
1) They are too long, by the time I get to the end, I just want to know how the next person is going to respond.
2) The adapting tag comes after the speech, which means that I picture it in my head, and THEN I read "whisper" and I had to go back.
I think I might have naturally pictured a whisper if the scene called for it - if they are backstage and the director asks him to go on naked, for example. You would not need to tell me he was whispering. And if this is, for example, Barret speaking, then I will tend to assume he's loud and strident :P. As I said below, these tags are basically necessary when the reader would not likely picture what you are trying to convey. I think it comes again to: have you set up the scene? have you defined the characters well enough? are you considering the reader as capable of imagining your story?
But regardless, this is all style choices, and I think it's wonderful and necessary that writers approach writing a million different ways. I would not want us all to treat dialogue the same way. I was just explaining my thoughts behind constructing dialogue.
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1) They are too long, by the time I get to the end, I just want to know how the next person is going to respond.
2) The adapting tag comes after the speech, which means that I picture it in my head, and THEN I read "whisper" and I had to go back.
I think I might have naturally pictured a whisper if the scene called for it - if they are backstage and the director asks him to go on naked, for example. You would not need to tell me he was whispering. And if this is, for example, Barret speaking, then I will tend to assume he's loud and strident :P. As I said below, these tags are basically necessary when the reader would not likely picture what you are trying to convey. I think it comes again to: have you set up the scene? have you defined the characters well enough? are you considering the reader as capable of imagining your story?
But regardless, this is all style choices, and I think it's wonderful and necessary that writers approach writing a million different ways. I would not want us all to treat dialogue the same way. I was just explaining my thoughts behind constructing dialogue.