When we first started writing novels, we often made this dialogue mistake .

It seems there are verbs you should never use to replace said in your dialogue tags (also called attributions or speech tags)

I wish someone had showed this to us before we had written our first book. We had to go back and fix much of our dialogue.

Hopefully, this will save you the agony we went through.

Here's 3 examples 

"I agree," he nodded.

"I thought you would," she giggled.

"Well," Sam fumed, "I don't agree."

"I don't see why not," he smiled

Can you see the problem. If you don't see the problem you are probably making this mistake, just like we did.

Can someone giggle something or nod a line of dialogue?  No, of course they can't.

Yet, oddly enough, it is easy to forget that these actions cannot be used in speech tags.

When writing dialogue, it is important for you to recognize words that should never be used in a dialogue tag. See below how to use these words correctly.

Look at our list. Many are actions. Remember, words can't fume, clear their throat, or jeer. Heads can nod, but words can't. .Words don't spit or seethe either.

Those things the character can do in the middle of the dialogue.but not speaking it.

See the correct way to use these words, after the list

We created this list to remind us not to use these words.

Type in your email and click the box to get this list as a PDF cheat sheet

 

Here is the list of words you should never use to replace said in a dialogue tag.