Must dialogue tags be limited to speech terms? Or can we use motions instead? For example: "Give me it," he said. "I'm all right," she murmured. Or is the following okay? "I don't care," he shrugged. "I like you," she smiled.
It's frowned upon in modern writing. I can't think of any instructors who recommend it, and it's usually called out as a mistake. That said, you can find quite a few older books (early 20th century) that do this without caring, so it's not as if pros haven't used that trick before. I would just turn them straight into a beat and then everyone's happy. "I don't care." He shrugged. "I like you." She smiled.
My tags are as generic as they come... ....," he said. ..." Angela asked. Originally, if I want to say something like... "Come take my order, baby. I'm starving," he said, looking pale and like he'd not eaten in a week. I'd change it to... John looked pale and as if he hadn't eaten in a week. "Come take my order, baby. I'm starving," he said.
Those aren't dialogue tags. Those are sentences. Dialogue tags are clauses. Basically speaking, the person spoke, period, then the person did something, period. "I don't care." He shrugged. "I like you." She smiled. You are confusing them with dialogue tags because putting an action next to dialogue can often serve the same function, allowing you to leave off the dialogue tag. This is, of course, a feature of proper paragraph mechanics. Namely, being consistent with the rule same actor/same paragraph. New actor/new paragraph.
If the meaning is clear and isn't distracting, words like "smiled" or "shrugged" can work fine. It's a style choice. Just watch out for overstating the intent, cos it makes characters seem like they're overacting. For example... "I don't care," he shrugged. We already get his indifference from the dialogue, so adding the fact he's shrugging makes it seem melodramatic. Just 'said' would work better here. However, something like... "I don't care," he smiled. Or... "I'm listening," he shrugged. These create an interesting constrast between what is being said, and how.
