Said isn’t Dead!

I will admit I am still hung up on the chapter Dialogue Mechanics in Self Editing for Fiction Writers. Mostly on how they address the use of said. For as long as I can remember, said is dead was the mantra of every literature, English, and writing class. To my knowledge, it still is the mantra. But as I re-read the chapter, I had another “ohh” moment.

While verbs as dialogue tags aren’t always wrong when you’re using them to tell the reader an action or emotion instead of showing them. This effectively distracts the reader. I went back to some of my favorite books. Pride and Prejudice, Percy Jackson, Harry Potter, and others. I’d love to say I couldn’t find examples that didn’t violate the rules according to the book. But for the most part, said made a frequent appearance.

Full disclaimer, I only looked at a few scenes from each book.

But I noticed more often that when communicating details about the scene in dialogue, so it’s not happening in a blank space, the authors relied more on beats broken into the dialogue.

For example:

“She didn’t,” said Charlie.

“She did,” said Rue.

“I thought Mary would understand those birds were protected,” Jesse sighed, walking over to dead birds. “If it was for hunger, I wouldn’t mind so much, but for sport… it’s a disgrace.”

Not perfect, but Jesse didn’t sigh the words. He sighed as he walked over to them. The added information from Jesse’s actions helps visualize the scene.

How do you define when and where to break up dialogue with beats when editing?