Use rich, evocative dialogue tags


‘Good morning,’ exploded Mr Petiska warmly. ‘How are we all today?’
‘Well enough, thank you,’ gushed Diedre, not looking up from her desk.
‘And how about you?’ impinged Mr Petiska, turning his mighty vocalisations towards the timid figure in the corner of the office.
‘Sorry?’ shrank Ingrid, vacillatingly.
‘How are you?’ recapitulated the manager in a decidedly gruff timbre.
‘I’m, um...’ Ingrid temporised, ‘um, well. I feel a bit...’ she tergiversated.
‘Never mind that!’ burgeoned Mr Petiska. ‘Back to work!’
‘Yes sir,’ Ingrid ovinely subsumed.

14 comments:

  1. Your flagrant and ebullient misemployment of syntactic misappropriation for the comedic gratification of your distinguished communal readership is, quite frankly, to be honest, should the truth be told, amusing.

    :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. tergiversated -- I can't even pronounce that one.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Of course there's much to be said in regards to just using "said" all the time. It's a ballancing act.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This blog is great. Keep em coming! I even bought your book just because of this blawg, dawg.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Are you sure your name isn't Stephenie Meyer?

    ReplyDelete
  6. And don't forget ejaculated! Always gotta use that one as a dialogue tag....

    ReplyDelete
  7. Fantastic. This is a humerous way to illistrate a point, much better than simply stating a rule.

    ReplyDelete
  8. biggest laugh ive had yet today. thanks

    ReplyDelete
  9. "I didn't even understand some of those tags," Anne divulged abashedly.

    ReplyDelete
  10. "Tergiversated" was where I lost it. I applaud you, sir.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Mr. Petiska was, of course, high as a kite; as evidenced by the mood swings.

    ReplyDelete