She Said She Said

The current stance in literature, apparently, is to frown upon using any verb other than "said" as dialogue tags. I've heard this from a few different so-called authoritative sources recently. Now, I can understand developing writers getting carried away in their haste to be unboring, & going overboard with their tags. And I can understand the inclination of exasperated educator-types to stifle said sophomoric excess. But it distracts me to no end in a story to encounter endless lines of "he said," "she said," "he said," "she said," ad nauseum. It gives me the impression the writer has a limited vocabulary. So I respectfully disagree with this verdict. I say the key is to have exactly the perfect word for the situation at hand. With any description, really. Nothing excessive, nothing superfluous - just BANG, the precise word that nails the situation right through the forehead. If it's a shrug instead of a said, so be it.

I'm not a big fan of barebones writing, I might add. I want my authors to sweat for their art, & discover things in the mundane I never realized were there. The less I am told by the author, the more information I end up filling in on my own. And the more I fill in on my own, the more inclined I feel to expect a certain percentage of the publishing royalties for having to do so much of the work myself. At least to get a sizeable refund off the cover price.