| May. 13th, 2008 @ 10:37 am Tags |
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No, not meme tags. I have about five I've been tagged on and haven't done yet.
What are your thoughts on speech tags?
He said. She said.
I've read to keep them as simple as possible - to let the dialogue speak for itself.
So if someone makes a suggestion, it's not necessary to say:
"Let's go to the park," she suggested.
We already know she's suggesting something. So a simple tag of "said" should be fine and less distracting.
Or:
"I can't believe you ate the whole thing!" he exclaimed.
Do we really need to exclaimed? The dialogue and punctuation tells us this.
As I'm revising, I've found tons of these tags I don't think are needed, and I'm removing them. But when is a tag needed? Ever? I've heard some people mention they've written an entire manuscript and forced themselves to use nothing but "said".
Thoughts? |
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