Before I get going, I just want to say, this is not meant to be advice, and it's not bashing the work of others, it's just my itty bitty opinion on a single word and its usage. Okay, clear? Fabulous.
I've seen a lot of people recommend using "said" and only "said" in speech tags. No one should whisper, giggle, shout, sneer, or express their dialogue with any sort of inflection other than just saying it. "Said" is supposed to be invisible to the reader, and its solely used to let the reader know who's speaking. Of course, there are also those who insist you should never use "very," "like," or even any form of "to be." While I agree that "very" is probably the least "very" word, and metaphors usually trump similes, and most of the time I prefer specific details to the vagueness of just existing, all of these words certainly have their places. I will even use "said" on rare occasion, despite loathing its existence and the love some have for it. I don't mind "said" if the character actually just said what they said. (I'm getting nauseous.) I just don't believe in any hard and fast rules for writing, and this "said" thing exasperates me!
I don't buy that "said" is invisible. Reading anything dialogue-heavy (or even more than a couple lines on a page) with only the use of "said" becomes insanely repetitive. (Aren't you already a little sick of "said" at this point? Maybe it's the use of quotation marks that's bothering you and not "said" at all! Oh, wait a minute...) That little word that's supposed to be invisible is suddenly the most used on the page, and it starts sounding weird, like you're not sure it's actually a word anymore and you couldn't spell it if your child's life depended on it. And often you're not a complete idiot--you, as the reader, know who's doing the talking--maybe "said" is completely unnecessary!
Just hearing it once usually burns my biscuits. I'm not entirely sure why, but I almost always envision the character simply standing and reciting. It throws me out of the scene, out of the action they are taking part in, away from whatever emotion they're experiencing, and suddenly the character is fifteen, alone on a stage, sweating under a spotlight, poorly performing their first monologue from a crumpled piece of computer paper because they want to kiss the most popular boy in school. Actually, no, that's not it at all. That at least somewhat conveys anxiety.
I understand that using "said" is supposed to allow your character's words to speak for themselves. What they say is much more important than how they say it. It's showing and not telling, all of that loveliness. Perhaps I am just not that advanced, but people don't always say what they mean. In fact, I think we rarely do. And real people (and thus real characters) aren't (usually) poets. They sound stupid, use words incorrectly, are sarcastic, mean, funny, loving. It's easy to say a thing, it's harder to hide your tone, to disguise your body language, to not let your face do a weird little blurp. Your main character may not be Sherlock Holmes, but she's probably able (and so your reader is probably able) to deduce a bit of the meaning behind what those around her say by how they say it.
More preferable to speech tags, in my opinion (remember, that's all this is), is using action, so maybe this whole rant is pointless. (Maybe? By golly, of course it is!) I'd rather know that the officer slammed his fist down on the desk prior to speaking than read his dialogue and know he shouted it. But we're not always doing this, right? Sometimes we are on stage, shakily reciting Kat's poem from 10 Things I Hate About You. Sometimes we stutter, sometimes we mumble, sometimes we whisper. And sometimes, I guess, we do say. But whenever I have come across it in reading I've grumbled.
"I am not liking this very much," I said.
Do you love/hate/feel indifferent about "said?"
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