hi im not sure if this is the best place to write this or not but here goes anyway,
im still writing my first novel it is coming along ok and is being written in past tense and in first person however im worried that i might have too much 'he said, she said' etc, im really new at all this i am going to upload some of my work soon, but i would appreciate tips on how to get from the he said she said, i would in hindsight say that the speeches in the novel are important to the book or i wouldnt be writing it,
any advice is gratefully received and also is there a way to get around all the speech grammar in any way. this is my first draft
regards
chrissie
sorry if this doesnt make alot of sense

Chrissie, I wouldn't worry too much: he said/she said are almost invisible to the reader. Assuming it's a conversation between two, you usually only need one about every four or five lines to keep the reader straight. Plus there are other ways of making it clear who's speaking: here's a selection [can't you just tell I'm procrastinating on my own work?].

'Hello,' he said.
I took his coat from him. 'How was the trip?'
'Not too bad, thanks.'
'The M1 empty?'
He hesitated. 'I've known it worse.'
'Oh, good.' I led the way into the kitchen. 'Coffee all right for you?'
'Have you got something stronger? It's been a long day.'
'Sure,' I said, and wondered if the only thing I had - a cheap Chilean red - would be to his taste.
'Don't worry, I won't drink you out of house and home. Just a glass.' He was fidgeting with his tie.
I wondered what had made him feel the need to reassure me. Did he know I'd heard about last week? I didn't ask, though, just gave him the bottle and asked him to open it.

As the last line shows, you can even break things up by reporting the occasional speech (specially if it's not a terribly important one) rather than giving it 'live'.

Emma



<Added>

The only thing I would say is that while dialogue is one of the fastest-moving and most effective ways of conveying your story, if you're feeling there's too much talking it may not be because there are too many he said/she saids, but because too much of the dialogue isn't actually central to the story. If you're imagining the scene as you write, it's horribly easy to put in all the stuff that would actually happen - about making coffee and opening doors - when actually you need to cut to the chase, as it were. Sometimes you need to write this stuff just to get your own imagination to the big moment you've planned, but the reader doesn't need to read it. My example above, for instance, could well be just the sort of stuff you don't need, or need much less of. If this was in a piece of mine I'd be using it to build up pretty soon to some shattering revelation, and if it didn't, I'd cut it. In fact, chances are I'd end up cutting it anyway, unless his hesitation about the M1 (is he lying) was important.

thankyou emma im going to go over the parts i was worried about and see what i can do to improve it
i knew this would be the best place to ask for advice!

<Added>

i have spent the afternoon going through some of what i ahve just recently wrote and i have taken your advice and edited loads, and reading it back it really flows so much better than it did before, so thanks again

Glad it helped!

Emma