Said

Harlequin said:

Philip k Dick liked to use,

She said, "Profound line goes here."

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I always think about posting this, but never do. (I think he's the only person who (still) does (did?) this.)

It is usually preference of style, and consistency is always important. But I'd say whatever flows well. If your mind is pausing when you read it, then maybe switch it around and see if that works better for you.

I did a short story once about a boy with Asperger's Syndrome and all of his dialogue started 'Said Ryan, "Whatever."' While keeping all the other character dialogue tagged at the end, it was designed to be jarring because his voice always stands out. Generally, I try to keep the tags as invisible as possible, and use them only to avoid confusion. IMO if the character voices are defined it's possible to use no tags at all and not confuse readers. Check out Who Was that Masked Man, Anyway by Avi it's an entire (I want to say MG) book written only in dialogue, no tags, no narrative.

Layla Nahar said:

I always think about posting this, but never do. (I think he's the only person who (still) does (did?) this.)

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I use that construction sometimes. It's a kind of signL as a poster above says.

I typically use "Mary said" instead of "said Mary." Saying "said she" would seem awkward so "said Mary" feels kind of awkward too. I think both are grammatically correct though, so yeah, depends on style.

I used to have an agent who told me never, ever to put the name after "said." He believed it bothered modern readers. I obeyed that for a while, but then I started to see that in some constructions (more in journalism, which I edit, than fiction), you really need to reverse the order.

For instance: "We have a grand selection of polished pinecones," said Mary Dunham, executive director of the East Shaftsbury Polished Pinecone Museum.

Now I mainly use name first in fiction, but alternate in non-fiction, depending on what sounds best for the sentence.