Said-isms

[rolanni]

All righty, then.

I just read a reader review of a book (not one of ours) in which the reviewer was bitching and moaning about all the said-isms in the book. People never just said anything, the reviewer complained (um, oops), they whispered, murmured, hissed, cried, mumbled, &c -- and everyone knew that was Just Wrong.

Well, I'm going to 'fess up; I didn't know that it was wrong. And I'm going to go one step farther; "said" is an awfully boring word. Oh, it has its uses, and use it I do. But, honestly, if someone has murmured, why not say so? If she mumbles, or stammers at a certain point, that might, yanno, be a Clue. I'd think a whole page of dialogue broken only by "said" would put me right to sleep. Granted, I could be in a minority here.

So, I have some questions.

The first is, where do you learn that "said-isms" are "wrong?" and how come I never got the memo?

The second is, what are your feelings about "said-isms":

[Poll #1222698]

or -- feel free to discuss in comments.

Comments

[baggette.livejournal.com]

I suppose that I must be in the "Love 'em" category, with the caveat that the "said-isms" are not over used or used improperly. The majority of authors I enjoy (yourselves included)have mastered the art of dialog so well that I do not even notice. While helping junior high and high school students in the editing process of their writing assignments, I encourage them to mix it up; rather than handing in white bread. Good writing should be more like multi grain bread; with texture and seeds for further details or exploration, later.
Individuals who insist on rigid observance of ANY rule, likely lack the imagination to be very good at entertaining in any venue. JMO