He said, she said
I was thinking about dialogue tags again. I knew I’d written about them way back when so I returned to the archives to read my thoughts. I concur with myself and that’s always a good thing.
I think the art of mastering dialogue is to write so that you need nothing but ‘said.’ I know that published, slap-happy, rich-beyond-rich authors use a myriad of flowery tags. Whatevah. I just think that if you convey your thoughts well, then the reader knows your character is asking, crying, whispering, muttering, reflecting etc. Chances are, you’ve already conveyed those ideas and are just being redundant (I love that word) in your tag.
As I write and edit, my own work or someone else’s, that’s my key. If I read the lines of dialogue as I would hear them in a play, without the he said, she said, would I envision what the author intends — or at least something close? Do the actions in the scene and the words of the character convey not only the meaning but the emotion. If someone is excited or anxious do I naturally read those lines quickly? Do the words race to the finish line of the scene? If someone is sad do I hear sad in my head? If so, great. If not, why not.
I say to that I love ‘said.’ To me it’s like a stepping stone – something you touch as you hop to the next. It keep you on the right path, knowing where you’re going — knowing who is speaking. The last thing you want is for your reader to think, “Wait a minute, who said that” because that takes the reader out of the story and into his or her own issues and head. Keeping the reader on the page and focused is key.
For me, flowery tags distract. It’s not that I never ever use them, just almost never ever. I have also been know to use ‘said’ instead of ‘asked’ because I tend to think questions are obvious and ‘he asked’ is redundant. (there’s that word again)
I know sometimes characters mutter and whisper, cry and shout. But when? Do you like the dialogue tags that say more than said? Do you use them? Tell me why.
I use said and asked. But I will toss in mutter and a few sighs for good measure. Some exhales. LOL! I do the exhales and sighs, most of the time, to give a sense of the rythm of speech, the breathiness to it, the way that sometimes, even more than dialogue, you can tell what is going on in my life by me literal breaths. Rapid for fear. Exhaled to show relief, or sometimes heavy with sadness. I think there’s dialogue, and sometimes I think there is an underlying dialogue beneath it, captured in a character’s breath.
I try to use NO dialogue tags and rely purely on the action. I think I have three “saids” in the first 200 pages of my wip, but I do use “whisper” a few times. And like Erica, my characters are known to exhale and sigh occasionally.
It’s funny, I don’t look at the sighing and exhaling and other breathy details as part of dialogue.
I’ve been burned by trying to establish “rules” to writing. Don’t forget “never attach an adverb to said like quietly or loudly”
I just opened a best seller the other day that reeked of adverbs on “said”.
Whatevs.
Probably fewer tags is better. Probably fewer adverbs is better. However I feel these things are just incidental compared to the actual dialog. You can’t make up for bad dialog with good tags, but the opposite is probably true, so I don’t know how much to make of all this.
Great to find you here. Love this post. And I definitely use “said”. If you have any concerns that this is not the right (write?) way to go, then read Stephen King’s BRILLIANT book “On Writing”, which I actually mention in my blog. He is a BIG proponent of “said”. Nuff Said!
I agree! As a matter of fact, Stephen King talks about the same thing in his On Writing book. He also REALLY hates adverbs. *lol*
I try when a steady exchange is going on, to not use tags at all. Makes it read more like people are talking. Other times, I use said, but occasionally I’ll throw in a whisper or a mutter. Probably shouldn’t, I should probably go back and look at making the scene show that without the tag.
I do use breathing alot, maybe too much. But I think sighs and huffs and things like convey mood and frustration. I also try to use body language, since I’m very visual and “see” my story like I’m watching a movie. It’s hard to write body language and facial expressions though, I’d love to find where someone put a dictionary together on that, of terminology! Wouldn’t that be awesome!
In my first book, I had to trim down the body stuff though, when I did a search, I had hundreds of shrugs and eyebrow raises. These people were evidently twitching like idiots, I had to calm them down. LOL!