![]() Speech tags aren’t the only way to do this – for example, you could use action beats before the dialogue, or adverbial phrases after your tags – but few readers will complain if you use the likes of whispered, yelled, shouted, muttered or whined. Still, there will be times when you’ll want a tag that tells your reader about, say, the sound quality, the mood of the speech, or the tone of voice. If your reader is focusing on your avoidance, their focus is not where it should be – on your story. If you deliberately try to avoid said, you run the risk that your writing will reflect that intention. I agree, and I recommend you embrace it! If someone’s told you to avoid repeating said, head for your bookshelf and take a peek inside some of your favourite novels for reassurance. This helps to make the dialogue realistic by keeping its superstructure invisible,’ say Mittelmark and Newman in How Not to Write a Novel (p. ![]() ![]() The speech tag said ‘is a convention so firmly established that readers for the most part do not even see it. Why said often works best, and when it’s not enough
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |