Tip From Tara: He Said, She Said.

Let's talk about said. Let's talk about dialogue tags. Look at this:

"How did you do in school today?" Mom asked.

"I think I did all right," Jesse said.

"Good for you. After your homework, you can go outside," Mom said.

"Thanks, Mom," he said.

Holy crap. One gets sick to death of that said, said, said. There are thousands of words you can use in place of said, not that I suggest using dialogue tags a lot. I personally like to throw a few action tags in there to set up the scene.

Some examples of dialogue tags:

jested
replied
murmured
stated
reassured
hollered
yelled
shouted
sobbed
retorted
informed
declared
announced
pleaded
teased

We can go on all day. Here's what I do with the above example:


"How did you do in school today?" Mom asked, glancing at Jesse from where she was preparing dinner over the stove.

"I think I did all right," Jesse replied with a shrug.

"Good for you. After your homework, you can go outside," she informed him.

"Thanks, Mom." Jesse grinned happily.

So, do a word search for said and replace some of them.

I've said my piece.