Decree

[bloodyrosemccoy]

From now on, anyone who uses the words “quip” or “drawl” as a verb shall be slammed with a fine up to, but not exceeding, $250,000 and up to five years in jail.

Anyone who uses the words “quip” or “drawl” to describe a line of dialogue will be shot without trial.

That is all.

Comments

[madcap-shiny.livejournal.com]

Meep! *was unaware that this was a grammar sin*

But I am so dependent on these for verbs and descriptions alike! There is nothing else in dialogue quite like a drawl or a quip. *flees*

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Don't panic! It is not a grammar sin.

Mostly, I figure that if the line of dialogue is a quip, then the author need not TELL us it is a quip. You're probably good with a "said" there. (I had the habit of using a different verb for every line of dialogue, until I realized that was actually pretty confusing. Now I mostly use "say" and "ask," or do stand-alone dialogue. It's much less distracting.

[madcap-shiny.livejournal.com]

AHA. Sounds fair and sensible. (I used to do the different-dialogue-verb thing all the time</>, and then eventually I went "...wait, no, despite the encouragements of elementary school teachers, this isn't actually improving anything by a large margin at all.")

[queenlyzard.livejournal.com]

*disagrees* We need all the alternatives to the verb "say" that we can get! Besides, some people do drawl, and it isn't always obvious from the spelling of their dialog! ... or something.
*gives up*