Jang Won Choe wrote:

problem with this picture of dialogue. You might not think "wow, he's putting 
his glasses up!" but you do notice it. Language is not just spoken words. 
You can program a computer to speak English with perfect grammar and a
wonderful  vocabulary, but I'd hate to listen to it for more than a few
moments. Why?  Because language is not just words, it is the language of the
body, the inflection of the voice. Ever take a speech class? You learn how
to position  your body, how to treat your audience, how to inflect words,
when to go soft and when to scream a bloody fit.. You do this because that
is how we speak in a natural environmment.
	In every day life people notice the small things your body is doing. A 
slight tilt of the head, or a far away expression give meaning behind the
words, put a subtle depth that cannot be shown by simple written words. That
is why you break up dialogue like that. Sure you shouldn't do it too much,
but it should be done enough to portray the emotion, the feeling of the
scene. You can get more meaning out of a line if you place action or
description of inflection with the 
dialogue..
	For example...
	"Baka," Akane said.
	"Baka," she sighed rolling her eyes heavenward.
	"Baka," she said softly, brushing a stray lock from his brow.
	"Baka," she growled, advancing towards him with mallet and a one way 
ticket for Tenou Airlines.

	Each sentence is the same word, but each has an entirely different 
meaning... Can you honestly say that a writer shouldn't use "beats" to convey 
meaning. I personally would never read anything that did not break up the 
monotony of reading He said, she said, Ranma yelled, Asuma said, Noa replied..
I want to know if they are walking around, what they are thinking, how their 
actions compliment their words. 

ah, but do they really compilment the words? I see some hack writers
trying to add meaning to there story by adding beats and never using
"saids". I didn't say you ALWAYS have to write "he said," "she said," or
whatever. Beats are there to break up the monotony of he saids, and to
build tension, or the convey a certain emotion to the scene. I never
said you should NEVER put beats in either. It seems that people are afraid
of using he saids, and put beats in instead. For both of our sakes, I'll
say this. Put in beats where appriate, don't overuse it becuase it can get
pointless and distracting.

"Baka," Akane said.
Akane rolled her eyes. "Baka."
"Baka . . ." Akane said softly
She reached for her ever trusting mallet. "BAKA!"

	Read any great writer and that is how the dialogue is..Even Shakespeare 
a playwrite, who is no actions or moods stated in his words, just
implied) 
takes on a whole new meaning, a much deeper meaning when performed on the 
stage... It's meant to be acted, not read.. Prose is meant to be acted in
your head, so you need the action to keep the work going. Script as well can
show  what people are doing and add little addendums to the dialougue
to set the mood.

true

don't add beats to every line though.
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