charles_bell wrote:Temple Wang wrote:Keep that perspective, and you'll sell millions, that's for sure. In fact, I suggest you write a book on dialogue tags, as I've never seen such an interesting hypothesis on the topic espoused. Shoot, you might even write a novel with just the dialogue tags, forget all those ploty, dialoguey, descriptiony, charactery thingeys altogether. You could call it: "He Opined"
"May the perfect dialogue tag always find its way to your pen," Temple blessed effusively. :-)
If it is your lifestyle and pursuit of art to obey the Emperor, that is for you to decide, but even the assumption there is but one dialogue-tag Emperor to obey is false, see here: http://www.spwickstrom.com/said/ and for the matter one will find "chided" but not "elucidated" in that list, what is important to note for anyone interested in English beyond the simple for the simple is that your obediance to the "said" orders is ridiculous.
Oh, come on, Chuck. You are obviously a smart guy. I am a master rule breaker when it comes to writing. I hate being in a box. But I break the rules when it makes sense and to improve my writing, not for the sake of breaking rules and to the detriment of my writing. No one is saying you can't stick a "chided" in every now and again. But when every other line is some silly tag, it just detracts from your story and makes your dialogue sound sophomoric. Frankly, i think all this defensiveness on you part is just bs. I think you know very well that you have gone "tag happy" in your story, not just with the "clever" tags, but also with over tagging. I think you are just debating the issue because you like to respond with pompous tripe because you think it makes you look intelligent. I get that - guys with low self confidence always like to show everyone how smart they are (or how big, or how much money, or ad infinitum).
You know, it's a pity you can't read in-lines, because despite my poking you in the final comments, I gave you a serious, thoughtful in line - I spent three hours of my morning on it. It's worth paying a month of dues to read, I can assure you. Incidentally, your dialogue tag issue isn't just the "clever" tags you overuse, it's your tendency to tag virtually every line. When it's clear who is speaking based on context or the words themselves, it's just stupid to tag. And when you have two people in a scene, you can drop 80% of the tags, as they just become distracting if you are changing paras with each speaker, which you do. In fact, I recall at least two instances I noted where you tagged the speaker in a single sentence twice!
Look, I'll get off your back. You just pissed me off yesterday with your rude comments about other people writing "junk". Even if that is true, of what possible use can it be to set yourself up on a pedestal and espouse such an opinion in an open forum? It's just hate-mongering, and ends up creating sore feelings and anger. If that's your intent, then you are an ass. If that's not your intent, then you are simply socially inept. Personally, I think you are a sociopath, as I have studied that particular brand of mental deviancy way too closely. And if I am right, then all this typing is useless because you don't even know you are missing the point. I hope I am wrong and can convince you to be less insufferable and more humane and polite
Temple
