I'm having the same problems. To make it worse, I have to make sure the actions are realistic for the period and the words aren't anachronistic. So no tossing heads, unless it's a horse, no barging in and so on. I can't tell you how many times I've gotten great lists and most of the words are unusable.

Thanks! I'll trust your experience. I guess my thought comes from my (bad) habit of skimming when I read really fast. Sometimes I don't read a long dialogue carefully, but I guess that's just my own problem. I'll trust my reader.

Anne, agents see this as a newbie error. Sorry. Someone told me once the tags are ONLY used if the reader could get lost as to whom is speaking. Otherwise, completely skip them. Do you see that "puzzled" is not needed? The question 'shows' us puzzled. You using it in a tag, 'tells' us. Trust your reader to get it!

Thanks for stopping by!

Yes, Dmac -- I agree, the fresh descriptions need to be sprinkled in, when it's a key scene. But personally, in think the shirt across the chest was brilliant. Tired movements encourage skimming - use the fresh ones to cause a pause....to draw attention to what's going on.

I have to admit, I've never understood the comma after, and preceding movement. Thanks for the tip!

Thanks, Abby!