I think the "said" tags often come off as unnecessary sentence flotsam, and I like to see that crisply flowing sparseness. The reader already knows the person is speaking without the tag - it's inherent. It feels more impactful to insert a character action in between quotes, if anything.
It's true, sometimes it feels so obvious and I wonder where the hard rule started that you *must* include 'said' dialogue tags after each spoken thing. I do like the usage of action in between like you said; it still helps break up conversation, but provides way more information about the characters' personalities than just knowing 'how' they said something.
I think the "said" tags often come off as unnecessary sentence flotsam, and I like to see that crisply flowing sparseness. The reader already knows the person is speaking without the tag - it's inherent. It feels more impactful to insert a character action in between quotes, if anything.
It's true, sometimes it feels so obvious and I wonder where the hard rule started that you *must* include 'said' dialogue tags after each spoken thing. I do like the usage of action in between like you said; it still helps break up conversation, but provides way more information about the characters' personalities than just knowing 'how' they said something.
This is so good I love it! What an awesome prompt too.
Thank you! I'm so glad you enjoyed it! It's definitely such a great prompt and I had so much fun writing it.