posted
I've been reading Stephen King's "On Writing" and it conflicts in a point with a few style guides I have.
King says that you should always use said, asked, and the other basic dialogue tags, ie. "he said" or "Jerry said", "Clinton asked". In his opinion you it is bad style to have very many "Jerry explained" or "Martha hypothosized". He also says that you should NEVER use adverbial tags, such as "he said angrily" or "she said wearily".
Now, my style guides say not to use "said" to much, that too many "he said" "she said"'s and the reader will begin to get annoyed. They also say that adverbial modifiers (-ly words), used in moderation, can be an effective tool for storytelling.
I can understand both sides of the coin. To many repetitive words CAN get annoying, as well as too many modified verbs. Is either of them right? I think that you kind of have to walk the line.
posted
I actually just started reading King's On Writing today.
Regarding dialogue tagging: OSC agrees with King on this one... http://www.hatrack.com/writingclass/lessons/1998-08-14-1.shtml has a discussion of why. In general I think the idea is to only add or change the basic tags when the tag and the dialogue can't convey neccesary information, and to omit tags when they get repetitive, such as in a long dialogue.
posted
I have a few books on writing, and on occasion they have some conflicting ideas. I would say that you write for clarity, and I have read so many books that use tags where appropriat, and skip them when they are not needed. An argument between two people that is heated can go on for a page or two and have very few tags to say who is talking. As long as people are not getting confused, and loose track of who is speaking then the tags are irrelevant; possibly annoying.
As for describing emotion through tags, I have read some good reasons for and against. The one I liked the best and made the most sense to me implied that if you need all those tags to identify emotion, you need to write it better. Emotions can be implide by word choice and body language. Now, I am no expert at it, since it isn't always easy to do well. I would say it is one of the skills that has to be worked at to master.
Either way, it comes down to clarity and your personal preference.
posted
personally, I try only to put the descriptive tags in when they're needed. When the dialogue or the action or anything else can supply the needed information, then I leave the tag off. I guess that pretty much agrees wholeheartedly with everybody else's answers, so on asks why I even felt the need to post this reply. Yes, that is the true question. If I may elaborate on your examples, Phanto, I personally tend to use the third one the most often. I prefer to show how the character is feeling through their body language, because that is how we figure out other people's feelings in real life. There is no narrator saying, "he just said that happily." We just see that he looked up, grinning, and deduce the happiness ourselves. Of course, each form has its place and uses.
Posts: 1528 | Registered: Dec 2003
|
posted
The third example is the way I have read it should be done. Also the choice of words in the dialog can be a factor also.
Posts: 807 | Registered: Mar 2003
|
posted
I do try to use the third of those options whenever possible, but I'm always cautious that if overused, your characters will seem hyperactive... Posts: 626 | Registered: Jun 2003
|
posted
he said, she said--think about the last book you read. Done thinking. How many times were they used? They are tags to the reader and nothing more. People read past them and don't even notice them.
I believe what the "don't overuse them" means is that if you tag every bit of dialog in your writing with he said, or she said, with little variation you run the risk of stilted dialog with no rhythm.
"blah blah," he said.
"blah blah," she said.
and so on where every sentence has a tag. The third example above is the best way to handle it--though you have to be careful with that as well.
If you have two people talking only the occasional tag is needed to keep the reader on track.
posted
This is just my opinion, but in all the books I have read and really enjoyed, there was more use of the third example than the others. You don't need it for every bit of dialog, but if you can portray the emotions through the visual aspect it works much better.
I think the trick is to know when you need to show certain emotions without telling them outright to the reader. This is one aspect I have been trying to improve in my own writing, but I can honestly say it isn't easy. Hopefully with some time it will become easier, but it is worth paying attention to.
quote:he said, she said--think about the last book you read. Done thinking. How many times were they used? They are tags to the reader and nothing more. People read past them and don't even notice them.
I have had the he said's grate on my nerves in audio book versions. My eye will skip them, but my ear won't.
I too, favor the action tag approach, as applicable.
posted
Wow, I have the opposite problem. In a written book my eyes don't need many tags, I can count down and figure out who's talking (in a two person dialogue, always tag if three or more people are talking!). If they're there great, if not, great. I really don't care in a written work one way or another.
In an audiobook, on the other hand, I can get completely lost if there are not ENOUGh tags. This is particularly true if the reader is bad, which speaks to the importance of hiring a good reader for your audiobook, but even so....Let me try this with an example.
"Have you seen Sarah?"
"The girl with the strange tattoo?"
"Yes."
"I haven't seen her in days."
In print it's really clear, however if it's being spoken by someone who doesn't put a completely different voice on each character it might sound like this:
"Have you seen Sarah, the girl with the strange tatto?"
"Yes."
"I haven't seen her in days."
Oops, we just got who said what backwards and totally changed the meaning! That happens to me with audiobooks on a regular basis. Usually it's only a small portion, but it's frustrating when it happens.
posted
It isn't tags in general, which are needed for the very point you mention, Christine, but just a repeatition of the "so-and-so said" construction. I can't think of a particular reading experience where I really noticed it, but I've had it happen with some audiobooks.
Posts: 652 | Registered: Feb 2002
|
Printer-friendly view of this topic
