Shoutout to my critique partner for proving me wrong about dialogue tags

My buddy Sarah kept telling me to use 'said' 90% of the time instead of fancy tags like 'retorted' or 'murmured'. I ignored her for months until I let her line edit chapter 3 of my fantasy novel. Has anyone else had a writing rule they fought against that actually worked better in the end?

3 comments

3 Comments

karenh561mo ago

Well, I fought the 'said is dead' rule for years too. But you know what? She was right. 'Said' just disappears on the page, you don't trip over it. All those fancy tags like 'retorted' and 'murmured' actually pull you right out of the story. Funny how the boring choice ends up being the better one.

danielnelson1mo ago

Same thing with plain white walls in houses. Boring works.

jade_jenkins1mo ago

Wait, hold up. Did you just say she got you to use 'said' 90% of the time? That's insane! I get that boring works, but 90% sounds like a ton. How do you even write a whole conversation without sounding like a robot?