Elements of Wild Style: Tagging Yo Ass Biotch (How To Write Dialogue So You Can Talk Shit: Part 2)

This is the only other acceptable way to tag.

There is only one dialog tag you will ever need, and it's "said."And congratulations, you don't need to use it that much. Don't worry, "said" is not like a name, you can't wear it out, and it never gets redundant because no one notices it.


Solid dialogue gives a reader the character's tone, so does their actions. This diminishes the purpose of tagging dialog to describe to the reader how the character's emotional tone when speaking.

"You want to know why?" he said.

"Shouldn't it be 'he asked?' not 'he said?'"

"Nope, when you write 'asked' it's redundant. The question mark does the work of the word 'asked.' The purpose of the word 'said' denotes who is talking. A question always ends with a question mark, likewise, it's a statement and were back to no one 'asking' anything, either way, you don't need 'asked'."

"What about using an adverb after 'said,' to show emotion? Even though Elmore Leonard said admonishingly not to do it."

"How can you ask something like that? The words you chose, show the emotion of the speaker, so you don't need, 'he said hysterically.' If the words don't do it, the character's actions will fill in what you're missing. 'You're tearing me apart Lisa,'" he clenched his fists and pulled them toward his chest, pumping his arms, enunciating each word.

"I still say, bologna to using only 'said.' What about so-and-so 'replied' or they 'responded?'"

"So-and-so's line of dialogue is the reply/response, so we're back to Conceptually-Redundant-Dialogue-Tag-Town."

"Awe shit, I think I got you on some semantics bullshit, because isn't using 'said' over and over redundant?"

"That depends on how you use it. There is a natural flow where the reader needs reminding of who is speaking, in that case, no, it's not redundant. Even if you were using all those other extraneous tags, you still wouldn't use them before or after every line of dialogue. You can't overuse 'said,' it's like overusing 'the.' 'The' is a determiner, and while 'said' is a verb, the way it's used is as a 'determiner' as in determining who is speaking." he said.