Often, I've used a sentence with an action that sets the tone of the dialogue eg
She leaned in to him.
'My husband is right behind you,'
Not a terrific example, but the reader may get the implication of either a whisper or a quieter voice (I hope). I think it's up to the reader in their minds, what happens. However, I've thought that adverbs may be useful with younger readers to 'see' the story and understand what the emotional context is about.
I never use any speech tags. I put a dash in front of my dialogue and don't signify who said it. But if you can do it well enough, there's no need. It's clear who said what in my books. I use occasional descriptions of atmosphere and tone between dialogue, here and there, to give feeling to it. But my scenes are heavy with atmosphere anyway, so the emotion and intention are obviously apparent.
Then you have to deal with your publisher's house style. I had one who wouldn't allow adverbs at all. Or at least, only very, very sparingly (behold!). It was frustrating having to rewrite sentences to avoid an inoffensive adverb. However, I got out of the habit of using them, but now I'm with a publisher who absolutely (there it goes again!) loves them, because they heighten emotion. You do have to use them discerningly (<---), of course, because if they're all over the place, they'll loose their power, as well as encourage lazy word choices. There just needs to be balance. A garnish of adverbs rather than an avalanche.
'I think that the use of adverbs to qualify the tone of speech can be very helpful if used occasionally,' he said, sitting on the fence.
Often, I've used a sentence with an action that sets the tone of the dialogue eg
She leaned in to him.
'My husband is right behind you,'
Not a terrific example, but the reader may get the implication of either a whisper or a quieter voice (I hope). I think it's up to the reader in their minds, what happens. However, I've thought that adverbs may be useful with younger readers to 'see' the story and understand what the emotional context is about.
I never use any speech tags. I put a dash in front of my dialogue and don't signify who said it. But if you can do it well enough, there's no need. It's clear who said what in my books. I use occasional descriptions of atmosphere and tone between dialogue, here and there, to give feeling to it. But my scenes are heavy with atmosphere anyway, so the emotion and intention are obviously apparent.
Then you have to deal with your publisher's house style. I had one who wouldn't allow adverbs at all. Or at least, only very, very sparingly (behold!). It was frustrating having to rewrite sentences to avoid an inoffensive adverb. However, I got out of the habit of using them, but now I'm with a publisher who absolutely (there it goes again!) loves them, because they heighten emotion. You do have to use them discerningly (<---), of course, because if they're all over the place, they'll loose their power, as well as encourage lazy word choices. There just needs to be balance. A garnish of adverbs rather than an avalanche.