Dialogue Tags and Redundancy

[lindymoone]

Apr 23, 2014 3:57:59 GMT -5 @rosalindjames said:

I write pretty instinctively, just trust my ear, but I've noticed that my use of tags depends on the characters. I wrote one book with a sparky relationship between two bright, highly verbal people. Ended up lots of times with dialogue just fired back and forth, no tags. My latest had a slow-talking, stoical hero. I noticed it had lots more "said"' tags. Slowed everything down to Joe's pace.

Your first book here reminds me of TV's Gilmore Girls. Anyone remember them? They talked so fast that there's no way anyone could have slipped a dialog tag between them.

For the second book, I'm picturing an old Gary Cooper movie. Plenty of room there.

Sounds like your instincts work just fine!