Hodge

Yeah, umm, there's body language and there's the way you talk, two different things that are often equally important. It's quite a bit different to be rubbing up against someone than it is to just be talking in a sexy voice, and if the tone of the voice matters (and isn't apparent through dialogue—anger, surprise, and elation usually are) then you put it in. There's a reason we have so many different modifiers, and there's a reason we have adverbs. And I assure you, they aren't just there so people can tell you not to use them ever.

Careful there—you can't grin something. In order to make this work you need to change that comma to a period or put "Jane grinned" before the speech. I recommend the latter.

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jta_8888

Do believe I said...

Hodge

You sure did. Whoops.

lisajane

Said's the best word. Generally, if you're going to use anything bigger than that, show it, not stick it on to the dialogue explanation.

However, I think the dialogue stands out better if you just use description around it, or dialogue on a line all by itself.

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'Beauty stands and waits with gravity to start her death-defying leap. And he, a little charleychaplin man, who may or may not catch her fair eternal form spreadeagled in the empty air of existence.' - Laurence Felinghetti, 'The Acrobat'

Saponification

Sure, that example was an exhaggeration. You could describe how she's looking at your narrator and so on. It gets the message across. People can fill in the blanks. I'm very much into Minimalism with this sort of thing. I cringe when I find myself accidently writing something along the lines of: "Blah blah," Jane said happily.

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suzakugaiden

Well, body language and voice are different but one tends to imply the other.

"Of course, asked is another, but that's only if, well, one character asks another something. o.O"

Asked works but it's not really necessary. In English,you DO end a question in a question mark, so it's self-apparent. Again, though, asked IS, like said, just sort of... unnoticible, so it doesn't really matter.

jta_8888

If all else fails, never forget that you don't have to say 'said,' or use any other tag, for that matter.

For example:

The only real tag used is "mumbled," and the dialogue still works.

Hodge

Minimalism's great, but again, it's not always the best course of action. Easy example: you can not, through any amount of description or creative dialogual maneuvering, make someone whisper. Unless you put it in italics, in which case you're cheating.

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