Said

Elodie-Caroline · Apr 13, 2007

I had written my previous work all in past tense, eg; she walked into the room and he was at his bureau writing. This afternoon, I changed it all into present tense... she walks into the room and he is sitting at his bureau writing. So what about the dialogue? We're all told to write the 'invisible' he said, she said, but surely, if my work is in present tense, shouldn't it now be written as she says, he says?

Thank you ... Elodie

Maryn · Apr 13, 2007

Of course the tags or attributes to your dialogue should be in the verb tense of the rest of the work. So you can do a search-and-replace for said to says, although later you'll want to proofread to make sure each replacement was actually a dialogue tag.

Maryn

Elodie-Caroline · Apr 13, 2007

Ah, just as I thought then... Thank you very much Maryn, that's most kind of you, and at least with Word on the PC, it'll be easy enough to put right.

Thank you once again

Elodie

Maryn said:
Of course the tags or attributes to your dialogue should be in the verb tense of the rest of the work. So you can do a search-and-replace for said to says, although later you'll want to proofread to make sure each replacement was actually a dialogue tag.

Maryn

Lance_in_Shanghai · Apr 15, 2007

I disagree. Writers (or sportscasters, for that matter) may choose to use present tense for actual past events only in a short application of chronlological timeline form. Typically, dialog is always a timeline, as such, so it is not a part of your insertion of a special timeline for the physical action. If you think present tense is correct for this dialog, you could, in theory, use it for any and all dialog. Yuck! You'll next want to replace "says" with "goes" and poof, Valley Girl talk.

Elodie-Caroline · Apr 16, 2007

Thank you ... I've changed it all back into past tense again, so problem solved

Said

Elodie-Caroline

Maryn

I Tried

Elodie-Caroline

Lance_in_Shanghai

Elodie-Caroline