Dialogue Tag: Asked/Ask

Antipode91 said:

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Do you use "said" in replace of "asked"?

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No. I think 'asked' comes across as pretty much invisible to the reader as does 'said'. I tend to avoid dialogue tags unless it's not obvious who is speaking.

Antipode91 said:

Do you use "said" in replace of "asked"?

Click to expand...

I use "asked" without any qualms.

Ditto what Indianroads said. It's pretty much an invisible tag, and you'll have no trouble finding lots of good writers who use it. The key with using attributions to quotations is always clarity, and avoiding overuse and repetitive structures.

caw

I use what I want to.

Antipode91 said:

Do you use "said" in replace of "asked"?

Click to expand...

No. That would look very odd to me. Questions are asked. Statements are said.

If one isn't "allowed" to use asked as a tag, the authors I read (and their agents and editors) haven't got the memo. I think asked is as invisible as said, and imo it looks kind of odd for something that is clearly a question to be tagged with a "said," unless one wants to emphasize that it was uttered with a flat inflection.

Honestly, for all that people blog about how you should avoid all use tags that aren't "said," (or "asked"), a quick perusal of the novels on my e-reader (some published very recently) suggest that "whispered," "shouted" etc. also aren't taboo, nor is the occasional "squeaked" or "groaned" etc. used as a tag. I have trouble believing that agents reject novels based on this factor, since it's so common.

Sometimes I wonder if some people who blog writing advice the web actually read any books.

I'm glad to see the consensus on this.

I also find it weird to see questions tagged wtih "said". Kind of like I'd find it weird to see calm statements tagged with shouted or something. Not that they tend to be, but still.

On that note I don't think there's anything wrong with replied, retorted, rejoined, exclaimed, cried, mused, etc. Everything in moderation.

Definitely use asked. Think about the audiobook version. The listener doesn't hear the question mark so a question followed by said would sound odd.

It's a question (hah!) of whether you are already using punctuation to indicate "asked". On occasion you run across - "Is this really a thing?" Amy asked.

Which is redundant. If you use a question mark you don't need a dialog tag. Either said or asked. But, sometimes folks will use the question mark but add said/asked as a tag anyway. And in that case I think some folks use "said" because part of their brain is crying "Redundant!" but they don't understand that the tag itself is unnecessary so they plug in "said" as well.

DongerNeedFood said:

Definitely use asked. Think about the audiobook version. The listener doesn't hear the question mark so a question followed by said would sound odd.

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Actually, if the narrator is worth their salt the listener *will* hear the question. (I say this as someone who has listened to a sample for an audiobook of her own work which used no dialog tags in the sample material.)

Roxxsmom said:

Sometimes I wonder if some people who blog writing advice (on) the web actually read any books.

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Most readers aren't editors, English teachers or pedants either. As long as there isn't a lot of repetition or overuse, typical readers don't notice or care.

Aggy B. said:

It's a question (hah!) of whether you are already using punctuation to indicate "asked". On occasion you run across - "Is this really a thing?" Amy asked.

Which is redundant. If you use a question mark you don't need a dialog tag.

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But sometimes you need to identify the speaker. Of course, there are other ways to do that besides using "asked," but occasionally you just want something quick and straightforward and relatively invisible, and not have to insert some meaningless action statement just so the reader will know who asked the question.

It also seems to me that "asked" is no more redundant after a question than "said" is after a statement.

I always tag my dialogue, even when there is two people speaking, or shouting, or screaming, or... you get it. I also think that 'asked' should come after a question.