"Said" Is Not a Four-Letter Word
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|---|---|
| Title: | "Said" Is Not a Four-Letter Word |
| Creator: | Arduinna |
| Date(s): | December 2004 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom: | multi |
| Topic: | fiction writing, fanon |
| External Links: | online here, Archived version |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
"Said" Is Not a Four-Letter Word is an essay by Arduinna.
It is part of a set of essays (Essays: Rants and Rambles) about fiction writing:
- Variety Is the Spice of Life, and I Need Some Tums
- Purple Fanfic's (total lack of) Majesty
- Epithets: Fandom's Designated Hitters
- Said Is Not a Four-Letter Word
Excerpt
"Said" and "asked" are invisible words; readers notice them only enough to confirm that yes, this is dialogue, between certain characters. They won't slow any readers down, or bore them.The alternatives, though, demand attention.
They generally suggest an emotional or physical state, something that the reader is forced to notice. Readers actually wind up paying less attention to what's being said, in favor of paying attention to how it's being said, because if there's that much emphasis being placed on the how, well -- that must be the important bit.
What that gives you is not only a story where the reader is having to stop at the end of every bit of dialogue to acknowledge the speaker's state of mind, but one where she's being told the state of mind, instead of shown it.
I'm not saying that every piece of dialogue should be followed by "said" or "asked". Not at all. I totally agree with the notion that that would be incredibly boring, and I've read fanfic that confirms it. But most people do tend to just talk, when they talk; they don't emote everything they say.
So how to present conversations without boring your readers or turning your characters into drama queens?
Use "said" and "asked" as your default dialogue tags. But don't fall into the trap of thinking that you have to use a tag on every bit of dialogue. You don't even need to use it on most of the dialogue.