"Let's talk about adverbs in dialogue tags," she said suggestively

RobJ said:

And she went on to earn staggering amounts of money from it. Readers loved it. What's the pitfall?


Rowling and how many others. Did you know she went on to earn staggering amounts of money? What's the pitfall?


While she continued to earn staggering amounts of money from it. Readers loved it. What's the pitfall?


Are any of them as wealthy as Rowling? Close even?


Here's one of my favourite quotes on adverbs for you. See if you get it. Someone posted it in another thread a few days ago:


Get it?

Click to expand...

some folks simply refuse to get it.

As I said, since Lee Wulff could cast so well with his arm and Tiger could outplay me with plastic clubs, I'm gonna sell my flyrod and buy some plastic golf clubs, too.....(hey, they both even made staggering amounts of money.....)

and yes, the agents and editors aren't as rich as rowling; maybe when you send them your master-work salted with adverb dialog tags, you can point that out to them. the point was, it ruined books for them...THEY are the folks who take or do not. If you aren't interested in the opinions of the folks who you'll be trying to sell to, I'm not sure who you intend to sell your book to

Its style vs. the rules.

I put adverbs and such in my dialogue tags because its bloody hard to always read "she said" "he replied" - how boring.

singsebastian said:

Its style vs. the rules.

I put adverbs and such in my dialogue tags because its bloody hard to always read "she said" "he replied" - how boring.

Click to expand...

And you think "she said suggestively" or "she retorted" is less boring? I think what is boring is LAME dialogue that needs these tags.

Sure lame.
But you get the talking head syndrome otherwise.

singsebastian said:

Sure lame.
But you get the talking head syndrome otherwise.

Click to expand...

No you don't. You can use action. You can use body language. You don't need to use tags at all. And "she said seductively" won't fix the talking head syndrome anyway, if that is indeed the problem.

oh, I see what you mean. maybe.
So I could say "she stomped her feet" as a dialogue tag?

singsebastian said:

oh, I see what you mean. maybe.
So I could say "she stomped her feet" as a dialogue tag?

Click to expand...

You don't need a tag in that case:


"I won't have it." She stomped her feet. "Never!"

maestrowork said:

I think what is boring is LAME dialogue that needs these tags.

Click to expand...

+1

maestrowork said:

You don't need a tag in that case:


"I won't have it." She stomped her feet. "Never!"

Click to expand...

And then you have my sister. *lol*
Cool beans. I do this a lot, actually.
Or I use "she replied heatedly" - though I know its a bane to some writers. I try hard to use action though, just because it can get boring with the diolague tag being lame.

Moderation in all things