Finally changed my mind about dialogue tags after reading a bad fanfic

I used to think 'said' was boring and you needed all those fancy tags like 'she hissed' or 'he retorted' to make writing pop. Then I found this story on Archive of Our Own where every other line had someone 'growling' or 'chuckling' and it was impossible to follow. The writer kept telling me how characters spoke instead of just letting the words do the work. I got about 3 pages in before I realized I had no idea who was talking half the time because the tags were so distracting. After that I checked out some published novels on my shelf and noticed they mostly just use 'said' or nothing at all. Now I strip out 90% of my fancy tags and just let the dialogue breathe. Anyone else have a writing rule they held onto too long before realizing it was wrong?

3 comments

3 Comments

umab351mo ago

Yeah the 'growling' thing always gets me. Are these characters actual wolves or did we just forget humans don't do that in normal conversation? I once saw someone use 'she ejaculated' as a dialogue tag in a completely non-naughty context and I still haven't recovered. Fancy tags are like hot sauce, a little bit goes a long way but drowning your work in it just makes a mess. Now I basically treat 'said' as invisible and only bust out something fancy when someone is literally whispering or shouting.

phoenixh741mo ago

Did you seriously just say you saw 'she ejaculated' used as a dialogue tag in a normal sentence?

jana_davis901mo ago

45 pages into a fanfic I found 'she ejaculated' for a line about coffee and I just closed the tab. What finally clicked for me was reading a bunch of published novels and noticing how often they just use 'said' or nothing at all. Makes a huge difference in how smooth the reading feels.