Hurrah for dialogue!

Dialogue is pretty awesome, and way important. So what do you think about dialogue? How do you craft it? What kinds of dialogue tags to you use most often? And how liberally do you use it?

Take it away!

Dialogue tags are important, even if they don't seem like it. :3 But the question is which ones to use. Some people like to vary it up, while others like to use mainly "said" to act like a comma, to keep the flow uninterrupted. Personally, I like to vary it up to some degree, because "said" seems really repetitive for me if used all the time, but I use "said" and "asked" the most.

after you get use to a character in my novel, until someone new is entered, i stop with the said and things because they all talk differently ^^

but you have to say it outloud in order to make sure it sound realistic and flows well

I dislike the overuse of what I call "fancy" dialogue tags. That is, tags modified by adverbs or things like "exclaimed," "sighed," et cetera. I believe it bounces the reader out of the story if they are overused. The dialogue tags need to simply serve as a guide to which character is speaking. Of course, in some situations they are acceptable, but they should never be overused.

i agree, though i use to do that. In some situations in my book its so important that i want to be like shoot myself if i don't use it o.o

Personally, if the word 'said' is used over and over, it bugs the heck out of me. Once in a blue moon is one thing, but I like to know how it's said. I tend to use multiple tags, and I don't like repeating them more than once in the same section.

Same. :] Though I think the verb should be descriptive enough to not need a tag usually (ex. if you use "whispered" you don't need quietly, but if they're fake-whispering, you can add "loudly"). I don't use tags a lot, but I do use them.

Yet some think that "said" is like a comma or a period, not taking the reader out of the story with distracting words. What do you think?

I agree withyou ashley. i love varity, it helps get emotion across -though detail does that as well.

personally I tend to make a list of emotions i'm going to use in a chapter or peice and then make sure to mix them up frequently and try not to use them twice within two - three pages.

yes, yes. me agree