The overuse of alternatives to the word "said", such as "snapped",
"growled", "whispered", etc., is a writing flaw known as "saidism" or
"said bookism", frequently to be found in fanfics and other amateur
writing. A writer is generally advised to use the word "said" unless
there is a good reason to do otherwise.

  However, I have always thought that the avoidance of any dialogue
tags, and the use of action tags instead, is not a flaw, but in fact
something to be recommended, assuming. of course, that it is done
correctly. 

 
There are three problems with avoiding the use of the verb "said" and
variants thereof. First and foremost, very few new writers do it properly.
Second, even when done correctly the risk of confusing the reader is greater
without using "said", than it is when "said" or some similar verb is used.
Third, observation from my own writing, and that from doing C&C for others,
suggests that writers frequently lose control of POV when trying to avoid
using such a verb. 
 
This is not to say that the technique cannot be overdone. It  most certainly
can and sometimes is. What I have discovered, however, is that correcting
the overuse of "said" or some variation thereof, is often simpler and less
time consuming to repair in a draft than are the multitude of sins a writer
indulges in when avoiding the use of "said" and its variants.
 
I use a great deal of dialogue in my stories. You will find long passages in
several chapters of CtCD that are nearly all dialogue. In those, you will
find that I frequently do NOT use the verb "said" or some substitute for it.
What you will seldom find is the wrong verb used in lieu of said, or an
incomprehensible mix of both action and dialogue tangled up in the same
paragraph. 
 
It is a mistake, to include in a single paragraph, action by two or more
characters, speech by two or more characters along with semantically null
verbalizations, or unvoiced thoughts. It is unreasonable of a writer to
expect a reader to untangle such stuff. It detracts from the pace of the
story. It saps the story of impact and is disastrous for comic timing,
because the reader is busy untangling the writer's prose rather than being
immersed in the story.
 
Even worse is how often writers lose control of POV when avoiding the use of
"said" at the outset. If you write a draft and find that you have overused
the verb said or variations of it, the situation is easily remedied by
editing. If, on the other hand, you discover that you have lost control of
POV, then you must undertake a major re-write of the copy.
 
The single most common mistake I see my fellow writers make is to lose
control of POV. I am not innocent of this by any means. I think there are
two primary causes for this persistent mistake. One is the desire on the
writer's part to get all of his back-story into the piece. The other is
avoiding the verb "said". The latter is simply a matter of discipline. In
other words, a willingness to do the necessary typing in the initial draft,
knowing that you will likely delete some phrases during editorial review.
 
The problem with crowding back-story into the wrong places is something any
writer is likely to do and usually can only be caught on review. One thing
that helps, but is not necessarily a cure, is to remember that no one can
read minds, so it is rather unnatural to create a situation in which the
reader "hears" every little thought of every character in every scene. Not
only is it unnatural, relating every thought of every character very often
hampers the action in a scene.
 
Very few writers on FFML attempt to write in first person. Far too many try
to write in the mythical "universal" or "omniscient" POV. It is easy to
imagine a story from that POV. In fact, it is _necessary_ to imagine a story
from that POV, but it is damnably difficult to write well in that POV. I
rarely use it and when I do, I try to be very scrupulous about taking the
position of an independent, invisible observer at the scene who is NOT a
mind reader. Even with this approach, I find it difficult to maintain proper
control over POV. 
 
If you obligate yourself to get across the emotional state of your
characters by describing their actions, gestures and speech, then you will
necessarily write a much more lively piece of fiction. The two problems with
the "omniscient" POV is that it gives the writer a tendency to narrate too
much, or shift POV too often. Too much narration is deadly dull. First
person POV suffers from this same tendency. Shifting POV from one mind to
the next to the next and back to the first mind in a single scene is
confusing for the reader, and takes the writer's energy away from describing
the action, which results in too much narration.
 
The other major flaw I very often see  on FFML, and I am sometimes guilty of
this one as well, is changing scenes without transitioning the reader.
Sometimes an abrupt change of scene works nicely, very often it does not.
Think twice before using such a technique.
 
Also, when setting up a new scene, establish the POV for that scene as early
on as possible--in the very first line of the scene if you can. Stick with
that POV throughout the scene if at all possible. I find that ninety-percent
of the scenes I write can be told better from a single POV than it can be
from multiple points of view. If you must shift POV during a scene, and it
is necessary on occasion, then do so carefully. Transition the change in POV
so that the reader sees the shift coming in advance. This can almost always
be done with a single sentence, often with a single phrase in a sentence.
 
As for not using said or deliberately  avoiding it in the initial draft,
some writers can do this with aplomb. Some of them can, but from my reading
of what comes across on FFML they are a small minority of writers. If you
are one, my congratulations and I am envious of you. Most of us, however,
are ordinary mortals and would do well to risk the overuse "said."
 
Kindest regards,
 
Don Granberry.


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