B&A: Do you ever find it necessary to use "he said/she said" with regards towards your dialogue? +BQ's?

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Oh! I love that book! Have you read A Time to Kill? Or The Rainmaker? Or The Client?

Moving on, I personally despise using dialogue tags. They annoy me. I usually have a lot of dialogue, and when it's between two people, I use tags only like three or four times. Once to establish who is speaking, three more to emphasize how they are saying things. I do things like, 'She sat down' instead of dialogue tags, so you know who is speaking.

Of course, not enough dialogue tags, even when it seems obvious who is speaking, can be a problem. I have that problem a lot...

I get what you're saying about how we all speak differently. I remember this one activity in elementary school, my music teacher made us all put our heads down. When he tapped somebody's shoulder, they would have to say a sentence. From that, we had to guess who was speaking.

But sometimes, in a novel, especially a novel in a different world, everybody speaks using the same type of words. In one of my current stories, everybody is always talking all formal, except for this one character. So sometimes, you can see more than one person saying a certain line.

You know when everybody is waiting for a book in a series to come out? Sometimes the publishers will post quotes from the book that 'spoil' somewhat, but not enough that you can actually figure out what is going on. They don't say who says the quote though, so when you go to see all the comments on the page of the quote/video, everybody has a different opinion on who said what in what situation.

Sometimes, it is obvious, based on the way of speaking certain characters have, but a lot of the times, in can be confusing. In the beginning, before I had gotten used to John Grisham's style, I had to read a couple of conversations a few times before I understood who was speaking when.

For the quote from Harry Potter.,. Hagrid?

So, cool thought. Now the pressure is on to make my characters develop distinct speaking patterns.

BQ: 10. It's my favorite part of the story.

BQ2: Hmm, what implications does the umm have? I wonder... :) Thank you! You're awesome too.

BQ3: Peanut butter icing? How about peanut butter in the middle of the brownie (or caramel...) and then Oreo icing? That sounds better.

Una dia, sabre mucho espanol y podre hablar algo inteligente......Show more

I use dialogue tags when their necessary. Actually, I probably don't use them as often as I should because it always seems perfectly clear to me. I stick with 'said, whispered, yelled and asked' for the most part. I find they're most necessary in scenes with more than two character talking, it's difficult to keep it clear. My characters don't have individual speech patterns for the most part. Unless they are all from different places and back grounds they tend to talk very similar to one another and when they are from different places and backgrounds I usually have groups instead of individual, and so everyone in a specific group talks similar. Of course there are differences, like one character in a group who's very timid and speaks in short direct sentences or characters who ramble on even if a simple answer would work, or characters who curse a lot and that sort of thing but it's not iron clad. Like a character who likes to ramble can still use a short sentence every now and again, so any time I stray from that characters norm I need it to be clear who's speaking. I'll often use action to replace a dialogue tag but only if the action is logical, I would never create action just to avoid using a tag.
example:
"What did you say?" He stood slowly and crossed his arms under his chest. Everyone in the room avoided his gaze.
"Nothing." Jenny said.
His action is necessary because it helps to show the reader that he's offended and also, if I have a character stand, he'll be moving soon, either toward her or out the door. However, Jenny is going to stay put so there was no necessary action to fill that void and there's other people in the room, so I wanted it to be clear that she recanted whatever she said to offend him rather than having some readers think that another character recanted for her.
BQ: 10. I love dialogue and I'm good at it. My love for writing started with play writing. Dialogue always came very easily to me, now prose is an entirely different story, after years of reading, practising, and taking courses I'm still just kind of okay at prose. If I have something complicated to explain I would rather have two characters discuss then try to explain it through prose.
BQ2: Thank you! You're pretty awesome yourself : )
BQ3: While peanut butter sounds pretty good, if you're into that sort of thing, oreo icing sound fantastic! But compromise, go half and half, afterall, variety is the spice of life!...Show more

When I saw the headline, I feared you were going to ask for lots of fancy synonyms for "said", and I thought, "He's a better writer than that..." I'm relieved to have been proven wrong. Being able to dispense with dialogue tags is perhaps an ideal to aim for. I don't think I'd ever do it myself. People praise my dialogue, but I worry that all my characters sound too similar.

A famous actor (can't remember who, I'm afraid) said that one technique he used to decide whether a script was any good was to read a couple of pages and then cover up the margin (where the characters' names are). If he could still tell which character was speaking, it was a good script - or at least, not definitely a bad one.

The reason that professional writers use "said" all the time, instead of the fancy synonyms, is because it's invisible - but I guess you know that.

BQ: Dunno... 8, maybe?
BQ2: Why thank you. You're pretty cool yourself :-)
BQ3: I've never had either, so I'd just have to toss a coin....Show more

Okay, well I get what you're saying here. It isn't necessary all of the time in writing to have the tag lines of, " he/she said," because sometimes it does get tiresome, and by the end of the book we probably know the character's well enough to know who's talking.

Although, you have to be very careful about annihilating "said." In Twilight Meyer never used said. The reason she is so bashed at for purple prose is because instead of using said, she used all of this flowery language that wasn't needed. Sometimes said is all you really need. She also tried what you said about, not putting ANY tags at all.

For example:

" I'm going to the doctor today," Billy whispered.

" I hate the doctor!" Cassie exclaimed.

" Why?" Billy asked.

" Because I hate shots," Cassie explained.

" They don't hurt that much," Billy remarked.

Doesn't it look incredibly flowery above?
Also, sometimes we do need tag lines to help keep things moving, but you're right, sometimes we need to write in moderation and try other things.

I have developed a few characters good enough. My character Jason uses comedy a lot when he speaks, and so if you laugh while reading a line between another character and him, then chances are that he's the one who said it.

Same with Logan, and Elisabeth (Ella) always makes smart remarks.

BQ: 8

BQ2: Awuh, thank you ♥.
BQ3: Oreo icing....Show more

Of course it's necessary, but I try to use it to the lowest degree. I am still a developing writer, so my dialogue obviously isn’t perfect. Sometimes I will have to add ‘he/she said’, but I keep this to the bare minimum. Usually when it’s two people talking, I only use it for the first two turns, the reader can work out the pattern from then,

BQ: 5. Dialogue is fine and good, but personally, I don't like writing it, even if they essential to many novels. Of course I still include it.

BQ2: Thanks. Though you are just pointing out the obvious ;) You are too

BQ3: I'd go with the Oreos personally ;)...Show more