“For the love of all things literary, please quit banning words like ‘said’ in your classrooms,” he howled. He demanded. He cackled. He barked. He spat. He bellowed.
He Pleaded
All the Old Showstoppers
Back in the mid-aughts, The New Pornographers were known for having a large number of members with impressive (and exhausting) solo careers. As part of The Rumpus’ Albums of Our Lives feature, Ryan Werner remembers Middle Cyclone by Neko Case.
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Tell Me Something New
Recommended Listening: Part One of Jhumpa Lahiri’s conversation with Paul Holdengraber at Lit Hub. “You know, tell me about something I don’t know. Tell me about a musician I’ve never heard of. Tell me about a poet I should be reading. Tell me something about the world, a situation that someone can explain to me in more detail.”
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I took this up a couple years ago: http://ellenakins.com/stop-using-those-strange-dialogue-tags-she-chided-exclaimed-exhorted-quipped-chirped-opined/
Just as long as we aren’t forced to go as far as Elmore Leonard in his unjustly celebrated writing tips: “#3 Never use a verb other than “said” to carry dialogue.”