Said

I never use anything other than said, if I use a verb at all. Well, that's not true, I'll put "asks" if it is a question.

It's possible to do, but should it be done?

How about:
Never pay attention to rules that begin with "Never."

What most good writers do is avoid hunting out synonyms for "said" when they aren't needed. "Said" is a nice, neutral word that doesn't call attention to itself, and will probably work 99 times out of a hundred. But there is always going to be that hundredth time.

There are also readers and writers who get annoyed when "said" is used instead of "asked" with a question.

Elmore Leonard's rules strike me as cold and lifeless (he is also against exclamation marks). Probably a lot of beginning writers need to hear that someone thinks this, however, I don't believe it should be followed faithfully.

George R. R. Martin, for example, uses a verb other than "said" once in every 3-4 dialogue tags. Can't nobody say he's an incompetent writer.

I prefer to use said, although most of the time I try to avoid using dialogue tags, period.

In my opinion, these two suck:
"I doubt it," he snorted.
"I doubt it," he said, snorting.

And this is what I try for, whenever possible:

"I doubt it." He snorted.

I think this is one of those rules that once you know it, you can break it.

I think it's important for new writers to hear because, like Lil pointed out, there's this tendency among certain, often newer writers to grab a thesaurus for a number of things, including dialogue attribution. But never using anything other than said is placing an unneeded straight jacket on your creativity. If occasionally a word other than "said" is the right word, then go with it.

Said is a nice invisible word. Its only purpose is so you can identify who is talking in dialog. Most readers don't even notice it and that's how it should be. They should be focused on the dialog itself. Using anything else, particularly something unintentionally humorous like,

"Oh my!" He ejaculated.

could have the unintended consequence of bumping the reader out of the story.

Saying you should never use a verb other than said is just ridiculous (as most "always" and "never" rules are). All my favorite writers use a greater variety of dialogue tags than that. I'm sure the rule was invented because of newbie writers having their characters ejaculating, pontificating, roaring, and hissing all over their manuscripts, but it's still a dumb rule.

You are using two different tenses with these two examples.

That apart, try putting an action tag in front of that dialogue and you will find no dialogue tag is needed.

And as to how it is spoken, that is obvious from the word choices.

You could end up with - Raul tapped on the window frame. "Hey, get your hands off my wood chipper."

G.G. Rebimik said:

It sounds better to me to say:

"Hey, get your hands off my wood chipper," Raul shouts.

Rather than,

"Hey, get your hands off my wood chipper," Raul said.

Yes/No?

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Nearly all my dialogue tags are said or asked. There's a specific instance in which I'll use replied.

"That's what he said," Joe replied.

In sentences along those lines, the use of said two times is really jarring to read. Of course, I'll try to use an action tag if at all possible.

Every once in a while, I'll use demanded for a question, but that's pretty rare. As long as you're not coming up with creative dialogue tags for everything, I think you're fine. No one's going to have an issue with an occasional dialogue tag other than said or asked.

In thirty-five years, I've never found a reason to use anything other than "said". Good dialogue doesn't need anything else, and bad dialogue isn't helped by anything else. Trust your reader, and trust your dialogue. Either your dialogue gets the job done with anything other than said, or it doesn't.

Even if you want to uses "whispered", "shouts", or whatever, there's still no need to use them as dialogue tags.

Shadow_Ferret said:

"Oh my!" He ejaculated.

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(spits coffee on monitor)

Always and never...don't trust 'em.

Said is the safest tag, but only using said is also limiting and potentially stale.

auzerais said:

I prefer to use said, although most of the time I try to avoid using dialogue tags, period.

In my opinion, these two suck:
"I doubt it," he snorted.
"I doubt it," he said, snorting.

And this is what I try for, whenever possible:

"I doubt it." He snorted.

Click to expand...

This is a grammatically enlightened approach. You have to think about what it would actually mean to, for example, "snort" something rather than say it. Does anyone actually snort their words? Anyone? (This is why I go nuts when I see lip biting in books, because seriously, who does that?)

I'm all for taking chances and mixing up your tags, just be sure it actually makes sense!

I mostly use said, but I personally don't see any harm in peppering other, mild alternatives. A lot of the more benign ones don't bother me at all when I'm reading.

There are some that I think are unnecessary just because the dialog shows it.

"Right," he agreed.
"Don't move," she ordered.
"Please. Stay," he begged.
"You'll be sorry," she warned.

It's sort of redundant because the dialog itself is agreeing, ordering, begging, and warning... but then, so is said, if you want to get technical, since in order for the dialog to exist, the speaker must have said it.

But I am a fan of the occasional shouted, whispered, and mumbled.

I'm in a minority, but I also accept tags like roared, growled, hissed, sang, laughed, rasped, barked, etc. because I feel like they can impart a quality of voice used in the right spot. Many, many other writers will disagree with me, but I don't take them nearly as literally. I don't really hold with the notion that, "You can't bark dialog!" There's a difference, to my ear, when someone growls a line vs. whispering it. Still, though, I use them few and far between.

It's only because of the many, many, many discussions about it on this forum that I've even noticed these tags in the books I read, now.

What I, personally, think the rule is for is to get new writers out of the habit of writing things like: "Get that monkey off the table," he pontificated or "The penguin and I drank all the daiquiris," he passed out.

G.G. Rebimik said:

It sounds better to me to say:

"Hey, get your hands off my wood chipper," Raul shouts.

Rather than,

"Hey, get your hands off my wood chipper," Raul said.

Yes/No?

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I think so. Other options are

"Hey, get your hands off my wood chipper!" Raul said.
"Hey, get your hands off my wood chipper!" Raul shouted.

heza said:

I'm in a minority, but I also accept tags like roared, growled, hissed, sang, laughed, rasped, barked, etc. because I feel like they can impart a quality of voice used in the right spot. Many, many other writers will disagree with me, but I don't take them nearly as literally. I don't really hold with the notion that, "You can't bark dialog!" There's a difference, to my ear, when someone growls a line vs. whispering it. Still, though, I use them few and far between.

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You can't bark dialogue. A pregnant woman can't really glow, either, but you can write it. It's a metaphor. Metaphors are accepted and even encouraged in writing, except when it comes to dialogue tags. I guess it's just because of an attitude some writers have about being incredibly spartan with dialogue tags.

I've never read a novel by Elmore Leonard, but if he's honestly never used any tag other than "said" to carry dialog, he's probably the only published writer for whom this is true. He was quite successful as a novelist, but I'd opine that his success stemmed as much from the stories he was able to tell as from his austere, lean writing style. Plenty of other very successful writers who follow different rules.

I also tend to purse my lips skeptically about successful writers who tell us to "never" do things (even from the perspective of their own writing style being *best*, ever since I discovered that Stephen King does occasionally use adverbs with dialog tags (in spite of his telling us to never do so in his book On Writing).

Do as I say, not as I do, kids. Ummm, yeah.

The general "rule," as I understand it (with all respect to the late Mr. Leonard), is that you should only use tags other than said if you want to call attention to the tag. Said is invisible, while tags like shouted, whispered and so on jump out more. Often, you can avoid tags altogether, or the words themselves or associated actions will get the "how" of what is said out.

What you don't want to do is vary tags all over the place simply because you think said is too dull or repetitive. You don't want characters expostulating, ejaculating, expounding, explaining, interjecting, objecting, opining and so on.

And you shouldn't use words that can't denote speech as tags (laughed, coughed, snorted and so on).

But note that there are popular and successful writers who make lavish use of non-said tags: JK Rowling, Douglas Adams, Joe Abercrombie and so on. Whether their writing would be improved by cutting all or most of such? That's a judgement call really, but their editors and fans seem to think it works. I personally think Hitchiker's Guide would be more sterile without its gushing doors and mooing cows. The outrageous tags fit the voice and tone of the story.

However, it's not what I'm shooting for with my own prose. I use those non said tags very rarely myself, and avoid even said when I can.

morngnstar said:

You can't bark dialogue. A pregnant woman can't really glow, either, but you can write it. It's a metaphor. Metaphors are accepted and even encouraged in writing, except when it comes to dialogue tags. I guess it's just because of an attitude some writers have about being incredibly spartan with dialogue tags.

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And I disagree that it's completely necessary to be that spartan at all times. I think in the right place, having a character bark something is fine. It don't see any reason dialog tags can't work as metaphors, especially if it's following a theme. Frex, a character described as an Alpha Male, giving terse orders. Dictionaries recognize it as a metaphor: to speak or cry out sharply or gruffly.

Lots of bestselling and award-winning authors use tags other than said sparingly (sometimes frequently), their editors let it pass, and a lot of their readers never notice. And I'm not invoking "JK Rowling did it." What I'm saying is that many fine authors apparently don't give it nearly as much thought as some other writers do. Sometimes, I feel like we've whipped ourselves into these austerity rules that other writers, publishers, and mostly, readers don't seem to actually have the same hard line on.

Sparingly? Yes. Absolutely never, ever? No.

Shadow_Ferret said:

"Oh my!" He ejaculated.

could have the unintended consequence of bumping the reader out of the story.

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You think? Hahaha

I use nothing but said except in matters of volume. Words such as whispered, shouted, hollered, etc. are acceptable to me when called for.

(Note: Elmore Leonard didn't say to never use exclamation points. What he said was to keep them under control.)

Katharine Tree said:

Elmore Leonard's rules strike me as cold and lifeless (he is also against exclamation marks). Probably a lot of beginning writers need to hear that someone thinks this, however, I don't believe it should be followed faithfully.

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That's a good point. A lot of people do need to hear it. I get frustrated at the lifelessness because I spent four years in journalism school religiously applying said. And it works really well, but there is more to life than news stories.

I tend to hear my prose as I write it. I imagine I am not unique in this. The result is that once in a while find a different word coming out. Sometimes it's the character, or the narrative voice, or the situation. I absolutely never go looking for synonyms or for a reason not to use said. I use it probably about 90+% of my dialogue tags. But occasionally....

My personal favourite, and I know it's a bit gimmicky, is a character who hmmed. I might yet change it, but probably not. It's an in-character reaction for both the narrator and the character to how that person in particular speaks. It's serving a characterization and voice purpose said can't.

Shadow_Ferret said:

"Oh my!" He ejaculated.
.

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shouldn't that be:

"Oh...oh...oh my God...!" he ejaculated.