Avoid Saying Said... 476 options ... what's missing from this starter list?

[Cthulhu.Science]

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

The small print is much more important than the very misleading headline in giant letters.

There is rarely, if ever, a need to avoid "said" other than just relating dialogue without any added said-verb at all.

 

[paranoid marvin]

The small print is much more important than the very misleading headline in giant letters.

There is rarely, if ever, a need to avoid "said" other than just relating dialogue without any added said-verb at all.

I agree. Constantly coming up with different words to avoid 'said' is an issue in its own right. Also 'said' is (in my opinion) an 'invisible' word, whilst most of those listed above are not.

So you may end up making a non-issue a problem for yourself.

Thrre are better writing techniques than simply replacing a repetitive word with another.

 

[Pyan]

They missed out "ejaculated", as used by L.M. Montgomery in Anne of Green Gables, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in Sherlock Holmes The Sign of Four.

Marilla came briskly forward as Matthew opened the door. But when her eyes fell on the odd little figure in the stiff, ugly dress, with the long braids of red hair and the eager, luminous eyes, she stopped short in amazement.
“Matthew Cuthbert, who’s that?” she ejaculated. “Where is the boy?”

“Now, Watson,” said Holmes, rubbing his hands, “we have half an hour to ourselves. Let us make good use of it. My case is, as I have told you, almost complete; but we must not err on the side of over-confidence. Simple as the case seems now, there may be something deeper underlying it.”
“Simple!” I ejaculated.

A good example of word-meaning subtly changing in common use over time...

 

[Toby Frost]

From The War of the Worlds:

He heard footsteps running to and fro in the rooms, and up and down stairs behind him. His landlady came to the door, loosely wrapped in dressing gown and shawl; her husband followed, ejaculating.

 

[Astro Pen]

I've said it before:
People don't scan said as a word, they scan it like punctuation.

Now corollary is that if you substitute it with any thing else it will be read as a meaningful word that is loaded with some implication about mood, pitch or whatever.
Just use 'said' unless you have a good reason not to.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

Said is indeed invisible, he said.

 

[Pyan]

J.J. said to his M*****
"M*****," he said, said he:
"You-must-never-go-down-to-the-end-of-the-town-
if-you-don't-go-down-with-ME!"

 

[paranoid marvin]

Finding a different word for 'said' will get you better marks in an English language exam.

In fact, there are quite a numble of notable authors who would end up in the 'naughty' chair for their singular use of grammar and/or word usage; Tolkien high among them.

Thankfully, the art of writing is determined upon by readers and not by an exams board.

For me, the most important rule in writing is 'use what works'. Most of the time in dialogue 'said' will do just as well as a combination of 'exclaimed, declared, invoked, questioned, shouted, rebuked, denounced' etc.

Oh, and I've just checked and 'invoked' and 'rebuked' aren't on the list.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I am not nearly as opposed to the use of "said-book-isms" (as they are sometimes called) as many others are. To overuse them, yes, I am against that. To use unnecessary ones, like "contradicted" or "denied" where the dialogue itself makes that perfectly clear, I find annoying. It used to be the style to use them far more often than is the case today. Now it's the style to avoid them. I'm against cleaving too closely to fads in fiction writing; writers should be flexible and true to themselves, and not try to write just the same way as everyone else.* At the same time, there is an evolution that occurs in any art. My own writing has evolved from what it was in 1989 when my first book was published.

And even I think that a list like that one at the top of the page—however well-meaning—encourages beginning writers to develop bad habits.


_____
*However, I will note that most readers don't give a toss about some of the things we writers obsess about. I don't think agents and editors care that much either. They want compelling plots and engaging characters. Style matters much less, unless it is egregiously bad.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

I use said 95% of the time, with replied most of the rest. Occasionally I'll throw in an answered, or something like that. In my Alfred WIP I've used cried a couple of times to indicate loud voice or equivalent. You can also vary the word order: Stephen said, said Stephen; and have the former option at the beginning of a dialogue sentence.

 

[JunkMonkey]

The small print is much more important than the very misleading headline in giant letters.

There is rarely, if ever, a need to avoid "said" other than just relating dialogue without any added said-verb at all.

Unless you are J K Rowling or really need to pad out the word count.

 

[Muginns]

Leave said alone.

 

[ablackenedrose]

Unless you are J K Rowling or really need to pad out the word count.

I recall having an issue with both that and her excessive abuse of adverbs when I pushed myself to read through the first three books of Harry Potter. (Never got into them as a kid and was born too late for Potter-mania to really grab me.)

 

[Christine Wheelwright]

Said is my go to. I also use sighed, shouted, cried, screamed. Sometimes replied. I use ejaculated a lot, but not in regard to speech.

 

[Pyan]

I use ejaculated a lot, but not in regard to speech.

Is it safe to guess that you write somewhat um... specialised books? (nudge, nudge, , know what I mean, guv?)