Speech tags--why the hate?

[pskelding]

I replied to a thread similar to this and will repeat the advice I gave before. Michael Stackpole has an excellent podcast on his free (last I checked) Secrets series in which he dicusses dialogue tags and gives some clear exercises on how to minimize them. I highly recommend it.

I've become a fan of the Joe Abercrombie school of dialogue tags, I try to minimize them as much as possible and instead use gestures seen by the POV character to establish who is saying what. It seems more natural. I only use tags when I want to emphasize something or establishing in the beginning of dialogue.

 

[SeverinR]

As others have said, when you try to get cute with dialogue attributions is when the trouble begins.

"Amy's a snot," she giggled.

Yeh, see if you can say that and giggle at the same time.

.

I'm no expert, but the few times I see these type, I assume they say, and then do the action.
Basically:
"Amy's a snot." She (said and then) giggled.

I fully agree not using the ones you can do together, like:
"Rude" He burped.
Some people can burp words, so there is some confusion.
"Snakessss." she hissed. I don't think people really do the cat thing while talking, maybe a cat lord or a talking snake? (We are in fantasy.)

I would say, think about what you use, for unintended humor and weird meanings.

"How about the occasional swifty?" I ask curiously.