Still in the game...

I'm not exactly sure how I got around to looking at an old index card box today, but I did. It's a box that contains the remnants of a larger collection of information accumulated by my late mother, consisting mostly of recipes that I'd like to try out, especially since scrawled notes on various cards (some as brief as a couple of question marks) suggest that my mother had tried the recipes and, finding them in need of improvement, had improved them (or tried to).

Not all the cards concern food. A half dozen or so, handwritten using a fountain pen, list various synonyms for "said" in dialog. These include the rather subdued "replied" and "admitted" as well as some more far-out attempts, such as "chided," "asserted," "rejoined," "interjected," "acceded," and "retorted." I do not recall where it was I first read the advice to pretty much stick with "said" in dialog (Elmore Leonard does, in his rather abbreviated rules on writing, but his was not the first piece I read on the subject), but I've followed it and am very likely a better writer for it.

The use of various replacements for "said," by the way, is far and away a different sin from the use of adverbs as modifiiers for such verbs, which is something that in my mind I always associate with the pseudonymous Franklin W. Dixon. Sentences along the lines of "What's it to you?" he retorted menacingly just make my hackles rise, but I digress.

I received and sent back a nice slug of work today, but there's still grist in the mill.

Cheers...