When writing dialogue, I’ve been trying to stick to the simple “he said/she said” tag, with an occasional “asked.” Also, I’ve been leaving tags out completely whenever it’s clear who exactly is doing the talking.

Recently I wrote a scene for the novel in which four people were having a discussion. Because they all participated, I found that I had to use either tags, or a bit of physical action to point to the speaker. Anyway, it ended up reading like this:

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“I usually omit dialogue tags,” said Fred.

“You don’t use tags?” asked Sue.

“Oh,” said Maggie, “pay no attention to him. He always uses tags.”

Mike shook his head. “No, Maggie. You’re wrong. You should read more of your husband’s writing.”

Maggie rolled her eyes. “I’ve read everything,” she said.

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See that? A little heavy-handed, wouldn’t you say? I know clarity is more important than style, but still…

Has anyone else run into this in a multi-character conversation?