Editing Quirks

One of the things about editing/revising that I might label a quirk is when you sit for an hour trying to think of the best word to use in a particular part of your manuscript. And then you realize it was all for nothing. What happened to me last night was I spent, well, maybe not an hour, but almost an hour, trying to figure out what verb to use in a dialogue tag in my book The Vase. It's when Professor Weiss is hurt and he is responding to someone asking him if he can walk. So I was trying to figure out what dialogue tag to use when he answered. I was thinking to just write He answered. But no. I almost went simply with He said, but no. He groaned? He muttered? After nearly an hour of getting nowhere, what was my solution? NO DIALOGUE TAG. Sometimes, no dialogue tag is the best way to go. But I wish I realized that a lot sooner. Oh well. Such is the life of a writer.