In her Writing Show Newsletter, Paula B.
combines her own tips on writing dialogue with some from the book, “Dialogue:
Techniques and exercises for crafting effective dialogue” (Gloria Kempton).
Here’s one I find especially useful:
Consider using description instead of a tag if it sheds
light on character or moves the story forward. Here's an
example from Larry Niven's Rainbow Mars:
Her voice was turning brittle again. "We can't read the Martian, Hanny."
Niven doesn't say, "'We can't read the Martian, Hanny,' she said brittley." He indicates the nature of his character's voice using description: "Her voice was turning brittle again."
Here's another example of description substituting for a tag, this one from Dean Koontz's Forever Odd: He let out a low sound of abject misery. "You're gonna think I'm such a loser."
Rather than saying, "'You're gonna think I'm such a loser,' he said miserably," Koontz eliminates the tag and gives us a bit of narration to describe the speaker's mood: "He let out a low sound of abject misery."
You can sign up for Paula B’s newsletter and find her useful podcast interviews at www.writingshow.com.
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