>>12943042
People do that all the time. Here's something I wrote a few days ago, for example. It's from furry fapshit so excuse the content.
>blah blah context
He finally got Ozzie on the other end of the handset.
“What,” Ozzie droned.
>because Ozzie is a character who doesn't talk much, it's necessary to describe his tone a lot more than other characters.
“Are you with your faggot cat friend right now?” Kai asked.
>Kai, on the other hand, talks a lot, so the tone comes from the dialogue rather than adjectives
There was some muttering on the other end of the phone. “Yes,” Ozzie replied, and the already remote possibility of a friendly conversation receded further into myth as his tone dropped to frigid.
>Again, because Ozzie doesn't talk much I needed to describe his tone. I went with a fun metaphor rather than a boring "Ozzie said flatly," adjective, but your tastes may vary.
“Tell him never to text me again. About anything.”
“Why are you such a cunt, Kai?”
“Because I am surrounded by fucking idiots. Now listen to me-”
“No,” Ozzie growled, “you listen to me.”
>After a few lines of dialogue without name markers, people can lose track of who's talking, so sprinkle some names in. Plus, this is the perfect time to emphasize with a "he growled." "He said," also works here because the tone is evident from context and the dialogue, but this is furry fiction and Ozzie is a bear so growling fits. Also note that Ozzie calls Kai by his name - this is a sneaky way to make it clear who's talking inside the dialogue. In real life people rarely ever use other people's names, but good dialogue is /believable/, not realistic
And Kai did, as Ozzie made some very straightforward recommendations about how to avoid future unpleasant consequences. Classic Ozzie. He’d never met a problem he couldn’t solve with threats and violence because he’d never met a man who could stand up against his threats and violence.
>A chance to introduce a bit about the character and also cut out some unnecessary dialogue. It also gives some "voice" to Kai's narration, but this is more clear (and coherent) with the context that I've cut out from before this section.
“Okay,” Kai said. “Truce. But I am serious. Don’t talk to people about where you get your gear from, and definitely don’t tell them you got it from me.”
“Don’t you want new customers?”
“Sure, but more importantly, I don’t want to get caught.”
There was more muttering on the other end of the phone. Then Ozzie spoke again. “Mat promises he’s not an undercover cop.”
>blah blah blah story continues
I don't promise that I'm a good writer, but this is my thought process when writing dialogue. There's usually good reason to include "he asked" or "he said" or "he growled" in dialogue, so they're not evil things you need to avoid, but where you can leave them out there's no reason not to and it really makes a conversation flow.