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rolanniAll 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.
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.
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Evolution of Writing and Multi-Media
Date: 2008-07-14 06:10 pm (UTC)[tongue in cheek] verb? [end tongue in cheek].
Reminded me of another recent thread:
( http://nancyfulda.livejournal.com/202772.html?thread=723988#t723988 )
"I have a similar theory about dialects in older fiction. Before audio recording, the only way you could know what an accent sounded like was to either meet someone who had it or to read it phonetically."
I love verbs that describe dialogue. When I was younger, I could look up 'mutter' in a dictionary. I would have a harder time looking up "Yo' ole father doan' know yit what he's a-gwyne to do."
=
Re: Evolution of Writing and Multi-Media
Date: 2008-07-14 06:34 pm (UTC)