If your seething, exasperated characters must hiss something—and, really, must they?—make sure they’re hissing something hissable. “Take your hand off me, you brute!” she hissed. —CHARLES GARVICE, Better Than Life (1891) Um, no, she didn’t. You try it. “Chestnuts, chestnuts,” he hissed. “Teeth! teeth! my preciousss; but we has only six!” —J.R.R. TOLKIEN, The Hobbit (1937) OK, now we’re cooking.
