: Attributives in dialogue I normally stick with "he said" and "she said" to keep things simple and transparent to the reader but wondering about questions. Is "she asked" and "he asked" appropriate
I normally stick with "he said" and "she said" to keep things simple and transparent to the reader but wondering about questions. Is "she asked" and "he asked" appropriate when a character asks a question? Can "he said" and "she said" be okay attributives for questions?
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@Angie602
'Asked' is generally not considered a said-bookism by most editors and readers AFAIK. In fact, I always use it when a character is asking a question. Because something like "'But how can that be?' he said." sounds wrong to me.
An aside related to comments on @LaurenIpsum 's answer: I only use the following:
said - always
asked - always for questions
yelled, called - only when the scene won't work if the character delivers his line at normal volume
interjected - when one character cuts off another mid sentence, but even then, rarely.
Edit: I also use "replied" occasionally.
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@Alves689
"He said" and "she said" are definitely fine when used with questions as well as statements and exclamations. When used with expressive dialog that speaks for itself the attributive may even be unnecessary, especially if there is other action text which makes it clear who is speaking. When the attributive is necessary or useful with expressive dialog, it tends to disappear, which I as a reader view as a good thing.
I think the occasional use of "he asked" and "she asked" is still fairly transparent, but it would be easiest to tell in a snippet for critique. More expressive language such as "she mumbled" or "he grunted" should be used with an intent to call attention to itself, because those attributives will make themselves obvious and catch the reader's focus.
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@Angie602
They're fine; they certainly aren't an error. If a particular use sounds awkward, don't hesitate to drop attribution entirely (it's often still quite clear who's talking, because most conversations are dialogue, so it's whoever wasn't talking the previous paragraph), or to move the attribution up to earlier in the line:
"But why would any of all that," he said, "explain how late you were to the party?"
This removes the incongruous sense of using "said" for a question, because it puts distance between the attributive and the question mark.
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@Carla500
Sounds fine to me. But then, I don't object to a judicious use of synonyms for "said," either. (grumbled, snarled, sighed, snickered, hinted, etc.)
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