Cliches

I write with two hands. That's AFTER I write I'll have you know....

Ahhhh The Tag Lines. Many authors in mainstream novels are getting away from them. However, I agree that we do growl and hiss in stories.

The cane came up several more times on Tina's sit spots. She hissed through clenched teeth. (Haven't we done that when we cut ourselves, or touch something hot?)

The cane came up several more times on Tina's sit spots. "Errrrggggggg! Please, no more!" (I've done this so many times when hitting my hand or bumping my head).

Seegee turned away and shook his head sadly. "I trusted you, you're supposed to be my friend."

Introducing a character prior to dialogue helps keep the tag lines at bay as shown above. I do this all the time.

The headmaster walked behind him and stood to his left. "Get out of position and you get extra, young man."

"Yes, Sir."

We know 'young man' answered.

This is all what I like to call A Mind's Eye View of what's taking place. Take away the growling and the hissing, and you take away that view. Yes, tag lines are annoying if overused. But with a bit of descriptive data prior to dialogue will help phase those out of a story.

Yes but if you outlaw the word said, and used screeched or squealed...that makes your job too easy and removes the burden of showing and not just telling. The reader should understand the emotion , intent... not because you used a convenient label, but because you thoroughly explained what the character thought, how the character felt, what the character admitted to herself or refused to admit.
I was nailed by a private comment from a dear colleague just last week when I employed an overused metaphor in my text. "Jen is one tough cookie." and he was right, I already demonstrated that by her behavior and that sentence was unnecessary and trite- he did not use those words- he was very subtle and kind.
Perhaps it all goes back to the reason you write- for your audience? to please and express yourself? to make sense of your life?
There is an audience here and they are mysterious. I look at an author's page and I see a story with 8 comments and 346 views and wonder, what did those other 338 mystery readers think? did they like it? hate i? Were they ambivalent?
Are we trying too hard? I don't want my stories to be a list of events and actions- this happened first, then this, then this. But I have noticed that stories under 1,000 words get the most attention. So, for now I will write what I please, hope some will read and enjoy it, not fret because it does not follow a pattern that many of the others do and enjoy the friendship and good natured taunts and teasing that come with a community of writers and readers that enjoy each others company. It's all good!

Boy, ain't that the truth? Who knows what they think? I've messed around with some stats recently and I've calculated that I get 2.6 comments for every 100 reads. That's 2.6%. Seems small, right? It is. But I think the top number is around 4- 5% and that's for recent authors who entered the site only after the great comment jump in May 2010. Fact is, there are a great many readers who never comment at all until they bump into the 500 story rule. There are only about 100 readers who comment fairly frequently and if it were not for them we'd never know if we were reaching people.

BTW on the use of "said" Elmore Leonard, a giant among American mystery writers, is of the opinion that in quoting dialog one should ONLY use the word "said" and describe the nature of the communication in other ways. I mostly follow his advice unless it is a whisper or a shout or some other vocal characterization where "said" would seem silly.

Islandcarol: "But I have noticed that stories under 1,000 words get the most attention. " ADD? Sound bite world? Texters? "Ah, the postmodern world of communications," growled Tom. Hissssssssssssssss.

I've noticed that myself. Once a story gets up there in the high 2k it's a touch and 'stay or go' situation. I think most of them just want to get to the core of it right away. The background of it doesn't matter.

B

I think the background is a very important part of a story. I don't think a good story can be too long. A story with 2000 words is in my opinion a short story.

Yes, West, for us, who wish to tell the reader everything to be sure they garner full enjoyment of their reading experience, 2,000 is a drop in the bucket. I find myself revising to keep it close to 1,000. But that is so impossible. I don't want to write bare bones stories; now, bare bottoms...
and Rollin, am so glad you mentioned Elmore Leonard. I met him at a book fair in South Florida and thoroughly enjoyed his writing tips and advice. On our lengthy family travels, I always included at least one Elmore Leonard Audiotape. some of his descriptions were so outrageous, we would stop the tape and rewind to listen to certain parts again. I wish I possessed a fraction of his brilliance.

West,

A short story is 2,500 to 17,000 words (anything after that is considered a novella).

2,000 would be considered short fiction.

So you see, they're ALL short stories.

The reason I mention this is through dealing with publishers of anthologies. I write in the horror genre. They drill this into you every single time.

When there are three or more characters in a room, all of them in a position to talk, it's vital that we know who is talking.

I have books - professionally edited and published books by authors who I have enjoyed their previous books - where there are passages where I'm not sure who said something. It's usually a short sentence (or sentence fragment) that doesn't give enough context, but those passages exist.

Here's an example of one. Five soldiers were talking as the marched, then there's someone shouting:
"Duck!"
right before a grenade lands. It's completely out of sync with the conversation (and it ended the conversation - everyone ducked and came up shooting) and there's nothing to attribute it to any one person. I know that it's probably not the last speaker, but it could be anyone of 4 characters who spotted the grenade.

Goodgulf