ShmoopTube

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[Dino and Coop singing]

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If you're writing a story about people, odds are at some point, they're going to start

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talking to each other.

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…or, you know, maybe they won't, but that might get a little boring… [The two people look annoyed]

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But if they do start chatting, you'll have to indicate what your characters are saying. [The characters start texting each other]

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To do this, you might use the word “said.”

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Y'know… "he said, "I love you!" she said, "I love you, too!" we said, "oh boy, why are

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we here, this is awkward…?" [Girl looks grossed out]

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All awkward love confessions aside, you're probably pretty comfortable with the word, [Coop pointing at a blackboard]

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"said."

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But sometimes it's fun to get out of our comfort zone!

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…As long as we can keep wearing our sweatpants.

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…They're superduper comfy. [Guy wearing sweatpants appears]

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Anyway, we know that “said" gets the point across, but it's not very exciting… [Boring stamp]

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So what else can we use?

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Well, imagine you're writing a story about two women, and you write the line: "'You're

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having a baby?' she said."

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It's clear that one character's asking the other about whether she's having a baby, but ['Scanning for emotions appears']

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it's tough to tell how she feels about the question.

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Is the prospect of someone having a baby exciting?

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Surprising? Scary?

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Inconvenient? Boring? [Emotions appearing]

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With "said" as our only clue, the emotional drive of the question is pretty unclear. [Sherlock appears]

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But what happens if we replace "said" with a descriptive verb, like "gasped"?

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People tend to gasp when they're surprised or shocked, so the line takes on a distinctly

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new emotional tone. [The sentence is hit with a hammer and vibrates]

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On the other hand, what if we replace "said" with a different descriptive verb, like "squealed"? [The girls looked excited]

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People squeal when they're really excited, so now it seems like the character delivering

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the line is extremely excited for the possibly-pregnant woman.

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…or she’s a pig. [Girl has a pig for her head]

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Which, you know… she could be.

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We never said otherwise.

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And guess what?

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There are tons of descriptive verbs out there! Look at all of them! [Big list of descriptive verbs flying across the screen]

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And because we know that sharing is caring, we're going to share some of our favorites

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with you…

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So next time you're writing dialogue, try throwing in a few descriptive verbs.

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Just make sure nobody's "shouting" in anyone's ear. [The two people look annoyed]

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