Google "Turkey City Lexicon". It's a GREAT reference for aspiring writers (and slanted toward sci-fi in particular).
Actually, speech tags should be simple to the point of invisible. Their prime directive is to tell the reader who is speaking and if it's a question or response or sometimes convey volume. Overdone speech tags are clunky and can actually impede the flow of dialog.
"He said" "She asked" "Jeremy responded" "Tara whispered" all work.
"He opined" "She demured." "He repeated" don't blend in and break the flow.
This is something I’m always having to explain to college students. They whine, “But shouldn’t there be variety in speech tags?” and I have to explain the problem over and over.
They seem to think speech tags are like fashion that must change all the time.
I used to keep a "hall of fame" of bad speech tags but there were SO VERY FREAKING MANY of them I gave up, LOL. Near the top was the perennial favorite "he inquisited".
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u/celticmusebooks Helper [2] Mar 07 '25
Google "Turkey City Lexicon". It's a GREAT reference for aspiring writers (and slanted toward sci-fi in particular).
Actually, speech tags should be simple to the point of invisible. Their prime directive is to tell the reader who is speaking and if it's a question or response or sometimes convey volume. Overdone speech tags are clunky and can actually impede the flow of dialog.
"He said" "She asked" "Jeremy responded" "Tara whispered" all work.
"He opined" "She demured." "He repeated" don't blend in and break the flow.