Finally realized I was killing my dialogue tags

I spent like 3 years writing 'he exclaimed' and 'she retorted' before a beta reader asked why I was using a thesaurus for every line. Has anyone else had that moment where you learn a basic rule you somehow missed completely?

2 comments

2 Comments

logan_dixon181mo ago

That moment hits hard. I used to write "she whispered loudly" (still cringe thinking about it) until someone pointed out that's basically a contradiction. For me, the real wake-up call was realizing "said" works perfectly fine like 90% of the time and readers barely even notice it. Now I just use strong action beats to show how someone speaks instead of relying on all those fancy tags. Simple is better, honestly.

brooke_walker231mo ago

@logan_dixon18 and I should start a support group for recovering thesaurus addicts.