Christine Young Presents He Said/She Said

Posted: February 10, 2013/By: achristay@aol.com

The Continuing Saga…

Not a lot to the Saga this week. One of Babes, not me, just got back from Hawaii then she got the flu. So no adventures to report.

I hate repetition and really dislike reading he/she shook his head or he/she took a breath. I know as a writer it can be very difficult to come up with interesting tags and phrases to identify the speaker. And I know when I first started to write (I’m not going to date myself) article after article would appear stating not to have dialogue that read…

“I really think that snake is disgusting,” Sadie said earnestly.

According to all the articles one should just say, Sadie said. Well that gets a bit boring. So I’ve started a list and adding to it as I go. Yesterday was its first day and so the list is bound to grow.

In order to not be to repetitive, I plan on keeping the said tags close by as I write. Because I know I do repeat myself. Eventually my list will get its own page on my blog. (when it is a bit longer)

What to use instead of — he/she shook his head.

He/she whistled through his teeth

His/her furrowed brow suggested concern

He/she put a hand up to stop her in the middle of her thoughts/speech

He/she couldn’t help but enjoy the verbal sparring

His/her mood soured

He/she gave him his/her most pointed stare

He/she let his/her growing displeasure seep into her voice.

He/she took a deep breath then let his/her anger out with it

He/she was gauging his/her reaction

He/ she looked as if he/she might want to make some type of retort

He/she defended himself

He/she changed the subject

He/she spoke over his/her shoulder

The statement fed his/her anger

He/she fumed

A string of explicatives followed

I call the, He shook his head syndrome a Chrisism. What are your pet peeves?

One response to “Christine Young Presents He Said/She Said”

Genene Valleau, writing as Genie Gabriel says:

February 10, 2013 at 9:48 pm

This is a fun post. And I try not to give voice to my pet peeves, because it seems as soon as I do, I find myself guilty of doing that very peeve in my writing. LOL! Keeps me humble. Thanks for sharing your list of tags besides the he/she said.

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