Chapter 3 and counting...

[ksmith]

I eschew dialogue tags whenever possible. I feel that more often then not, they're unnecessary.

Apparently not everyone feels that way.

Comments

[daveamongus.livejournal.com]

For me, I like a good exchange without dialogue tags, especially when the voice of each character is strong enough that they are, in fact, unnecessary. But, when writing, I do like to show incidental action sometimes, and then it does become necessary to throw in the tags.

Without them, you can create an intense exchange that the reader feels, because all that's there is the dialogue. A profusion of tags, though, with incidental action tossed in, can help create a different feel, which can also be quite useful.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I'm not even trying to confuse anybody.

"Go home." Jani grabbed Lucien's brimmed lid and flung it over the balcony rail. "See if you can beat that to the ground floor."

versus

"Go home," Jani said, grabbing Lucien's brimmed lid and flinging it over the balcony rail. "See if you can beat that to the ground floor."

I prefer the former. Some prefer the latter, and alter my text to suit without querying first.

[daveamongus.livejournal.com]

Huh. That does puzzle.

Are you excising them again?

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Have you met Bucky?

[barbarienne.livejournal.com]

That is...well, let's just say, that's stupid. A copyeditor did this to your latest?

You want I should rat them out to the managing editor?

(...she said, in her best 1920s gangster voice.)

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

The above is actually a made-up example. Below is an actual example--at this point in the scene, it's obvious that Jani and Lucien are the only two people in the room:

My version:

She waited until the doors closed and the two had disappeared from view. "What did you do to Val?"

"Nothing he didn't ask me to." Lucien swirled the scant remains of his brandy.

CE version:

She waited until the doors closed and the two had disappeared from view. "What did you do to Val?" she asked Lucien.

"Nothing he didn't ask me to." Lucien swirled the scant remains of his brandy.


Me again--I have emailed my editor's assistant. Nothing yet, but maybe I should wait until I hear.

It's just that I also had this CE for the last book. They dislike some of my made-up words, and keep trying to change them even though I've used these words throughout the series. My editor emailed about this last month, and I asked to please leave all made-up words and Anglicisms alone. This was not done.

I am...ticked off.


I should add there there have been a couple of instances where CE requested clarification, and clarification proved to be needed. But those instances are outweighed by stuff like this, and the fact that they went ahead and changed things that had already been queried and that I asked to be left alone.

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

I, too, like the idea of being able to tell who is talking after reading only a chapter.

Copy editors rarely feel this way. Unless you're Zelazny, and then it's a contest -- are you sure who is talking by the end of things?

I agree that it's worth striving for.

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