How Do I Know What I Think Until I See What I Say?

The divine Miss Moonrat has a post here describing the plight of the Overwriter . You know this person--the one who never uses "red" when he can use "crimson," the one whose never met an adverb that she didn't love, the one whose dialogue doesn't sound like anything you've ever heard anybody say, ever, and that includes in historical romances. The whole post is well worth reading, but my favorite part, and the one I am most merciless on myself about, is the part about dialogue tags. This is what Moonrat has to say: It's ok to use the word "said," even if you use it more than once. Really. You can just say "Jackie said" instead of "Jackie sneered jeeringly" or "Jackie continued her bombastic harangue, her outraged grimace flickering as a sympathetic smirk fought its way to the surface." Repeat after me: WORDS SPEAK LOUDER THAN DIALOGUE TAGS. heh . As Omar would say "indeed."* I almost always use