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That one critique about my dialogue tags changed everything
A beta reader on Wattpad named Sarah pointed out that 8 out of 10 of my lines ended with 'he said' or 'she said'. She told me to just let the action show who's talking instead. I switched it up for my latest short story set in Portland and suddenly the pacing felt way snappier. Anyone else ever get stuck on a writing habit you didn't even notice?
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sam_rivera2d agoTop Commenter
Sarah's tip about letting the action show who's talking is solid. I had the same bad habit and what helped me was reading each scene out loud. If I heard "he said" more than once on a page I knew I was leaning on it too much. Try swapping half your tags for a small action like "John poured himself some coffee" or "Lisa looked out the window" and see how much cleaner the dialogue reads.
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wade7672d ago
Offered to buy Sarah a coffee for that advice. My first draft of a camping scene had "he said" or "she said" after every single line of dialogue. Read it out loud like sam_rivera suggested and it sounded like a robot narrating a phone book. Swapped half of them for small actions like "Dave stoked the fire" or "Maya passed him a beer" and the whole scene came alive. Those little verbs do all the heavy lifting. It is weird how one tiny fix makes your writing feel like an actual conversation.
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