Sie sind auf Seite 1von 30

325 Dialogue Tags to Replace Said By Rusty Fischer, author of Zombies Dont Cry

Copyright 2011 by Rusty Fischer All rights reserved.

This is a work of fiction. All of the names, characters, places and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the authors imagination or, if real, are used fictitiously. Cover credit: Dudarev Mikhail Fotolia

Dedication

This book is for every editor who ever spanked me about my dialogue tags! (You know who you are and you know how much I appreciate you! And you! And you and you and you!)

Authors Note

The following is a FREE special report designed to inform, enlighten, inspire and educate authors about using dialogue tags. All the ideas are based on the authors personal experience only; not science! Try at your own risk. (But they worked for me, so I hope they work for you as well!) It also wasnt designed to win any special editing awards! Therefore, any editing errors, typos or grammatical mistakes are all the fault of the author and will be cleaned-up prior to publication. Enjoy!

Introduction

Two words: dialogue tags! Im only warning you now because if youre tired of hearing about dialogue tags, I dont want to add insult to injury with this EBook. But if youre like me, though, and youre new to YA publishing and hearing about dialogue tags said, asked, blurted, etc. and the very, VERY strong response they can invoke in the hearts of many editors, well... this is the EBook for you. Heres what happened: recently I got back a manuscript that was close to final, final i.e. all the big stuff issues had already been figured out. However, there was still an issue with my dialogue tags. In other words, I use one almost every time one of my characters speaks. Whats more, not only do I use them all the time, but my dialogue tags are often VERY, very similar, as in:

Go here, said Zombie 1. No, go here, said Zombie 2. Im telling you, guys, its this way, I said. Dont trust her, said Zombie 3.

Etc. So, the editor had very politely, very helpfully highlighted in yellow every said in my book! Now, some pages didnt have any highlights, which is nice, but some pages, man it was like a WALL of yellow highlights. And Im thinking to myself, When in the world did I use all those said tags in this manuscript? Its kind of like unloading all the stuff out of your shopping cart, watching the cashier ring it up, paying the tab, loading them back in your cart and thinking, I came in here for grapes and ground turkey! When did I buy all this... other... stuff? I call all that other stuff Book Blind Spots. In other words, no matter how many times youve read it, re-read it, pre-edited it, edited it and re-edited it, there are still issues with your book that just go right by you because you dont actually see them.

You know? Book Blind Spots. Obviously, said is MY book blind spot. (Not my only one, of course, but the only one I have room to deal with here.) Back to my story: so, I replaced about 92% of the said dialogue tags in my book. (Not all of them. I mean, sometimes said just plain works best, am I right?) That means I am now somewhat of an authority on synonyms for said. In fact, this book is the result of how many other dialogue tags I used to replace said. Each time I used one, like questioned or blurted or uttered or muttered, I copied and pasted it down in this very, very rough document. Over time, it grew and grew. Now, whenever I need another word for said and Ive already used uttered or exclaimed one too many times and you know I have! I literally open this document up, start scrolling down the page to any old spot and sooner or later I will run

across a new dialogue tag, you know, something like muttered or stammered or blathered or yammered or murmured or whispered or, well you get the point. But eventually I cleaned up this ever-growing list. And when I did I was surprised to learn that I had not 50, not 150, not even 250 but 325 dialogue tags available wherever, whenever I needed one to replace the word said. Now, Im not saying that said is a bad word. In fact, in some certain circles, the only dialogue tag some editors want you to use is, in fact, said. (I just havent worked with any of those editors yet!) But even if you do like said, and use it often, if youre looking for more variety in your dialogue tags, well, I like to think that youve come to the right place. On the following pages youll find literally hundreds of alternate dialogue tags for use in your novel; all alphabetized, all numbered, all quickly accessible and all there to help you add emotion, drama, tension or whatever emotion you want to your next character conversation.

In any event, for better or worse, good or bad, here they are 325 Dialogue Tags to Replace Said:

325 Dialogue Tags to Replace Said

1. Accused 2. Added 3. Admired 4. Admitted 5. Advised 6. Advocated 7. Affirmed 8. Agreed 9. Alleged 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. Announced Aped Approved Argued Asked Asserted

16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33.

Assumed Assured Babbled Badgered Barked Bawled Began Begged Bellowed Bemoaned Beseeched Bickered Blamed Blanched Blared Blasted Blathered Blazed

34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42.


43. Burst

Bleated Blubbered Blurted Blushed Boasted Breathed Broadcast Bullied Burned forth Cackled Called Cautioned Challenged Charged Chattered Cheered Chortled

44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 51.

52. 53. 54. 55. 56. 57. 58. 59. 60. 61. 62. 63. 64. 65. 66. 67. 68. 69.

Chuckled Cited Claimed Clarified Clashed Coached Commanded Commended Commented Commiserated Complained Complemented Concluded Concurred Condemned Confessed Confirmed Confronted

70. 71. 72. 73. 74. 75. 76. 77. 78. 79. 80. 81. 82. 83. 84. 85. 86. 87.

Congratulated Consented Considered Contemplated Contended Contradicted Conveyed Copied Corroborated Counseled Countered Cracked Cried Criticized Dared Declared Decreed Deduced

88. 89. 90. 91. 92. 93. 94. 95. 96. 97. 98. 99. 100. 101. 102. 103. 104. 105.

Defied Deliberated Delighted Demanded Denied Derided Described Detailed Differed Directed Disagreed Disclosed Disputed Disregarded Divulged Doubted Droned Echoed

106. 107. 108. 109. 110. 111. 112. 113. 114. 115. 116. 117. 118. 119. 120. 121. 122. 123.

Emphasized Endorsed Enquired Envisioned Erupted Established Estimated Exclaimed Exhaled Explained Exploded Expressed Extolled Fancied Finished Fired Flared Flashed

124. 125. 126. 127. 128. 129. 130. 131. 132. 133. 134. 135. 136. 137. 138. 139. 140. 141.

Flouted Fussed Gasped Gathered Giggled Glowed Goaded Granted Grinned Griped Groaned Groused Growled Grumbled Guaranteed Guessed Gulped Gushed

142. 143. 144. 145. 146. 147. 148. 149. 150. 151. 152. 153. 154. 155. 156. 157. 158. 159.

Harassed Harmonized Hassled Heckled Highlighted Hissed Hollered Hooted Howled Huffed Hummed Hypothesized Illustrated Imagined Imitated Implored Incited Included

160. 161. 162. 163. 164. 165. 166. 167. 168. 169. 170. 171. 172. 173. 174. 175. 176. 177.

Indicated Inferred Informed Inserted Insisted Instigated Instructed Insulted Interrupted Introduced Jeered Judged Keened Lamented Lauded Laughed Launched Leered

178. 179. 180. 181. 182. 183. 184. 185. 186. 187. 188. 189. 190. 191. 192. 193. 194. 195.

Maintained Marvelled Mentioned Mentored Mimicked Moaned Mocked Moped Murmured Mused Muttered Nagged Needled Noted Notified Objected Observed Oozed

196. 197. 198. 199. 200. 201. 202. 203. 204. 205. 206. 207. 208. 209. 210. 211. 212. 213.

Opined Opposed Ordered Panned Panted Persisted Pestered Pleaded Pledged Pondered Popped Praised Prayed Pressed Presumed Proclaimed Promised Prompted

214. 215. 216. 217. 218. 219. 220. 221. 222. 223. 224. 225. 226. 227. 228. 229.
230. 231.

Pronounced Protested Provoked Publicized Puffed Purred Quarrelled Queried Questioned Quoted Raged Ragged Railed Rasped Rattled on Reasoned Reassessed Recapitulated

232. 233. 234. 235. 236. 237. 238. 239. 240. 241. 242. 243. 244. 245. 246. 247. 248. 249.

Recapped Recommended Reconsidered Re-examined Reflected Refused Refuted Relayed Remarked Remembered Repeated Reported Requested Resisted Revealed Reviewed Ribbed Ridiculed

250. 251. 252. 253. 254. 255. 256. 257. 258. 259. 260.
261.

Roared Ruled Rumbled Ruptured Schmoozed Scoffed Scolded Screamed Screeched Scrutinized Sensed Shot back Shouted Shrieked Sighed Simpered Smouldered Snapped

262. 263. 264. 265. 266. 267.

268. 269. 270.


271.

Snarled Sneered Sniffed Snickered Snivel Snorted Sobbed Solicited Sparred Spat Specified Speculated Spelled out Spoke Sprayed Spurted Sputtered Squabbled

272. 273. 274. 275. 276. 277. 278. 279. 280. 281. 282. 283. 284. 285.

286. 287. 288. 289. 290. 291. 292. 293. 294. 295. 296. 297. 298. 299. 300. 301. 302. 303.

Squealed Stammered Started Stated Stipulated Stressed Stuttered Substantiated Suggested Sulked Summarized Supposed Surmised Swore Tattled Taunted Teased Theorized

304. 305. 306. 307. 308. 309. 310. 311. 312. 313. 314. 315. 316. 317. 318. 319. 320. 321.

Told Transmitted Tutored Underscored Urged Uttered Verbalized Verified Vowed Wailed Warned Wept Wheezed Whimpered Whined Whispered Whooped Wondered

322. 323. 324. 325.

Yammered Yapped Yelled Yelped

About the Author: Rusty Fischer

Rusty Fischer is a professional freelance writer who lives in sunny Florida with his beautiful wife, Martha. They enjoy riding bikes, long, leisurely walks on the beach, romantic dinners and zombie movies; lots and lots of zombie movies! (Well, Rusty does, anyway!) Rusty is the author of several YA supernatural novels, including Zombies Dont Cry (Medallion Press, 2011), Ushers, Inc. (Decadent Publishing, 2011), Detention of the Living Dead (Quake Books, 2012) and Vamplayers (Medallion Press, 2012). Visit his blog, www.zombiesdontblog.blogspot.com, for news, reviews, cover leaks, writing and publishing advice, book excerpts and more! And if you cant wait for his next release, download his complete YA novel Vampires Drool! Zombies Rule! absolutely FREE at www.scribd.com/doc/38953974/Vampires-Drool-ZombiesRule-by-Rusty-Fischer.

Das könnte Ihnen auch gefallen