Great point, Janga. This is what hung me up all of last year. All the advice and rules and nay-saying. I’ve finally figured out I know enough to get the story down and stop worrying about rules. After a while, I think they become part of our subconsious anyway.

No one gets it perfect the first time and telling a good story is the point. If the reader knows what the character is saying, how they are saying it, and why, then all should be just fine.

That’s my theory and I’m sticking to it. LOL!

Jenny Crusie is one of those who says “said” is invisible. She has stong words for writers who have characters sighing words that can’t be sighed and other such ill-conceived combinations.

I think we aspirers have to be careful about advice, If one write I admire warns against repeating he and she, and another I respect cautions not to overuse the characters’ names, where does that leave me?

I couldn’t imagine listening to those scary books. Especially when I listen to these things on long road trips when I’m all alone. I’d never be able to get out and pump my own gas at a dark, strange gas station. LOL!

The DH and I listen to Sue Griffin (?) books on the road. I think we are up to the letter N and, yes, we have a way to go. The narrator of that series does a great job with all the characters.

I also listened to a Dean Koonz novel on audio and it scared the Bejesus out of me. Ditto for several Crighton books. I haven’t ventured into romances - yet.

This may sound strange but I don’t add tags to dialog until I am done with a scene. I know how they are saying it in my head. I then say the lines out loud and can hear where the tags, if any, need to go. I haven’t mastered this as well with my action tags.

Great blog, Terrio!

And if you are still struggling with this stuff but sold, I feel better that this sort of thing can be worked out in editing.

On the other hand, I love anything read in a smooth Brit-accented baritone.

I blogged several weeks ago about discovering I had way too many action tags in some of my scenes. I’ve actually been trying to limit them, as well as the “unusual” dialogue tags. I also have to fight the urge to overuse italics to get across the word emphasis and inflection I want. Ideally, the dialogue lines themselves should do the majority of the work, but I still struggle with it.

Perhaps it’s out of context. The bore holes sentence made me want to laugh rather than swoon.

Also, reading what you’ve written out loud can make a big difference. Really read it as if it’s a script. If there is anything to hang up the reader, you’ll find it then.