"Dialogue Tags!" She Exclaimed
Using "Said" in Creative Writing
"Dialogue what?" he asked.
 
Dialogue tags are those little phrases that come after dialogue to tell the reader who was speaking--like "he said" or "she shouted." They are among the most necessary and most ill-used components of writing.
 
There are two main schools of thought about dialogue tags. One says that dialogue tags in general, and dialogue tags that use the word "said" in particular, are repetitive and annoying. The other school says that the word "said" is invisible--or at least unobtrusive--and therefore not a problem.
 
That's all very nice for writing theory, but what about those of us who just want to know the best and most effective way to attribute dialogue to our characters? As with many things in writing, each writer has to figure out what works best for them--but we can look at the two ways of thinking about dialogue tags and take the most important points from each.
 
Then you'll be equipped to make your own informed decision, as it relates to your own writing.
 
"Said is repetitive," they complained.
 
One school of thought about dialogue tags say that they are too repetitive. Endless sentences beginning with "he said" become annoying. There are two main ways of reducing the repetition, each with its own problems. One way to eliminate the repetition of "said" is to replace it with equivalents. Instead of "he said," why not use "he proclaimed," "he pontificated," or "he explicated"? It's certainly a good idea to have many "said"-equivalents in your vocabulary, but it's easy to get carried away.

One problem is that the replacements for "said" are often more unusual words, and tend to draw attention to themselves. Instead of becoming absorbed in your brilliant dialogue, your readers may be distracted by all the exclaiming and proclaiming and pontificating.
 
Another problem, and one I see all the time as editor of the creative submissions on this site, is that too many writers replace "said" with words that aren't really speaking actions. "She laughed," may seem like a good alternative to "she said," but can you really laugh words? Try it. There's no reason why you can't have a character laughing and speaking, but they aren't really the same action. Instead of "I'm going to blow up the planet," she Laughed, try something like She started to laugh. "I'm going to blow up the planet," she said, between guffaws, or even more simply, "I'm going to blow up the planet." She laughed.

In that last example the sentence "She laughed" acts like a dialogue tag, in that it tells the reader who is speaking, but as a separate sentence, it keeps the two actions of speaking and laughing separate. The thing to remember is that replacements for "said" should be actual speaking actions. If they're not, try using them in a separate phrase or sentence instead.
 
Another way to eliminate excessive "said"s is to just leave them out. Some writers take this to an extreme, and remove nearly all dialogue tags. If your characters have distinct enough voices that readers can tell who is speaking just from the words they use, you're probably safe, but in most cases, you'll need to use dialogue tags once in a while to remind the reader of who is speaking when.
 

Part II

"Dialogue Tags!" She Exclaimed
The Invisible "Said"
"Said is invisible," he said.
 
The second school of thought about dialogue tags is that they are essentially invisible. In other words, readers notice them only for the information they supply about who is speaking, and nobody will care if you use "she said" in every other sentence. Writers who think this way are happy to use dialogue tags as much as they like, and may only use "said"-equivalents when they're essential to conveying how a character is speaking.
 
One way to find out how you feel about the invisibility or lack thereof of dialogue tags is to read long passages of characters conversing in many different books by different authors.
 
See when the dialogue tags jump out at you, and when you hardly notice them at all. Then look more closely at those passages. Did you notice repetition of "said" more, or was it "said"-equivalents that distracted you? Did you get confused when there were very few tags? Take what you learn and see how best to apply it to your own writing.
 
"Balance," she advised.
 
As with many things, balance is probably the best thing to aim for. Leave out dialogue tags where they won't be missed, but make sure they're there when readers might lose track of who is speaking. Use "said"-equivalents where necessary, useful or appropriate, but don't overuse them or use too many flashy words. And don't be afraid to use "said" as much as necessary to get your meaning across.
 
One final thing to consider when thinking about dialogue tags is the effect they have on style, mood, tone, and all those other difficult-to-define aspects of writing. Think about what you are trying to do with your story and how the use of dialogue tags could help bring that about. Dialogue tags seem like a simple, utilitarian aspect of writing, but they are also a useful tool. What if you were writing a story with a bizarre, surreal atmosphere in which the main character is confused? Perhaps leaving out most of the dialogue tags would help make that confusion seem more real to the reader (don't make them so confused they give up on the story, though). What effect might a story have that combines the frequent use of "he said" "she said" with a pattern of writing that replicates oral storytelling? Such usage might be appropriate for a story where you want to
create a strong fairytale feel.
 
Experiment, see what works, and don't be afraid to change your strategy for every story you write.
 
by Niko Silvester