Just realized my critique partner was right about my dialogue tags

Tbh I've been writing for about two years now and always thought my dialogue was fine. Last month my critique partner Sarah told me I use 'said' way too much and that my characters sound like robots. I got defensive at first because I thought 'said' was invisible to readers. But then I went back and looked at one of my scenes where two characters argue. Every single line had 'he said' or 'she said' and it was so boring to read. She suggested I replace some with action beats or just leave the tag out entirely. I tried it on a new chapter this week and the conversation actually felt alive for once. Has anyone else had a critique that stung at first but ended up fixing a blind spot in your writing?

2 comments

2 Comments

tylerr2926d ago

Blew up my writing when I finally listened to a friend about the same thing. I had this scene where two characters were joking around and I used 'he said' after every single line. It was like a checklist. I swapped out half the tags for little actions like 'she grinned and nudged his shoulder' or 'he shrugged and poured another coffee.' The whole mood shifted. Felt more like real people talking and less like a script.

elliotl2426d ago

Haha @tylerr29 nailed it with the "checklist" thing because that's exactly what my dialogue looked like. I had this one argument scene where every line literally started with 'he said' or 'she said' and it read like a robot fight. After I swapped a few tags for action beats, the whole scene actually felt tense instead of flat. It stung at first because you think you're doing it right, but once you see the difference it's hard to go back. Now I catch myself in old drafts and just cringe at all the said tags sitting there like dead weight.