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Every writer goes through a stage where they think that they use 'said' too much. So young writer starts to use substitutes like, he expostulated, she shouted, he questioned, she stated. Don't do it. 'Said' is virtually invisible. Pick up a book with a decent amount of dialogue and count the 'said's. It's astonishing. Another rule of thumb. You can use unattributed dialogue:
"It's mighty dark in here," Joe said.Unattributed dialogue is the stuff where it doesn't say who said it. But be careful with it; too many times I find myself counting back to see who said what. Attribution is invisible, when in doubt, use more rather than less.
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Maureen F. McHugh (mcq@en.com) Updated October 4, 1995 |
