27/3/06
In creative writing, when you're in second grade, they tell you to use words like "declared" and "reported" and "announced" instead of "said" because it gets repetitive.
When you're in high school, they say no, stop that, "said" is fine, your characters don't have to ejaculate sentences.
And then you're working on your thesis, and in your results section, every second sentence is "...., one librarian said." Or, for a change of pace, "....., said one librarian." And you start madly scrambling around for any word that isn't "said," just to inject a little bit of variety into it...
My current bit of wisdom is:
What do you call the person who graduates last in her MLS class? Master of library science.
Not that I'll know my class rank. Not that I expect to graduate dead last. I'm just saying.
When you're in high school, they say no, stop that, "said" is fine, your characters don't have to ejaculate sentences.
And then you're working on your thesis, and in your results section, every second sentence is "...., one librarian said." Or, for a change of pace, "....., said one librarian." And you start madly scrambling around for any word that isn't "said," just to inject a little bit of variety into it...
My current bit of wisdom is:
What do you call the person who graduates last in her MLS class? Master of library science.
Not that I'll know my class rank. Not that I expect to graduate dead last. I'm just saying.