RE: That's What She Said: The Use of Dialogue Tags
Yep, I agree dialogue tags should be used in moderation, but they definitely have a place.
Also, for the love of God, don't use an action instead of a dialogue tag. " "I am so fed up with this," she frowned" is really not possible. Also, people can't hiss words without the letter S (unless you are Wodehouse you won't get away with it).
Also: if you substitute action for dialogue tags, make sure the action and the piece of dialogue of the same person are together.
For example: John caressed Anna's cheek and smiled. "You are a beautiful woman." This is fine, but I have also seen this: John caressed Ana's cheek and smiled. "Don't touch me."
In the first instance it is John who is speaking, which you would expect given the action preceding it. In the second instance it is incorrectly Anna who is speaking. In the second instance, the dialogue sentence should be on its own line, not following the action.
Writing is trickier than it looks, folks!
I completely agree with your caution about action tags, @isabellelauren.
Thank you for your comment. ;-)
Matching the action with the appropriate speaker is definitely essential also. It's one of those things we help people with a lot in the Fiction Workshop--making sure the speaker is clear enough. The main thing is, as Tiny made clear in her article, that actions are not dialogue tags and have to be formatted as sentences, not attached as tags.