yes al - that's what I do, wipe them off gently (if there are any) when the film is dry. I've never had drying marks on the emulsion side - I imagine because the emulsion is absorbent so any water on there is sucked in before it can form a blob.
Using paper tissues on wet negs isnt a great idea if you're planning to conventionally print them as tiny paper fibres glued to negatives can cause huge headaches when it come to spotting your prints. Not so much a problem for scanning and p'shop cloning spotters Maybe lint free absorbent cloth like a jay cloth would be better ? I'd stick to preventative measure then cleaning off once dry. I know some people swear by squeegy-ing the negs to remove the excees before drying - I've never had any success with this other than it being very good at scratching the emulsion, but I think Peter R has.
I got drying marks on the emulsion side before I started using wetting agent. For the tissue wiping trick, I use a good quality tissue (not kitchen or toilet paper, that is a fibre nightmare!), fold over and over to make a small pad, wet it and squeeze the water out, before wiping gently, and using a new tissue each time Fibres don't seem to be a problem doing it like that.
I've also used chamois leather which works very well but had to be good quality or bits break off it.
I haven't had a lot of success squeegying either; yeah the only time it did a good job of removing the water it did a better job at scratching the emulsion.
Another trick that works well to get rid of the bulk of the moisture is simply to run the film between two wet fingers.