museumheist:

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again:

You are supposed to use “said” consistently. It is one of those words you are allowed (and encouraged) to repeat.

Why, you ask? Because your dialogue is supposed to speak for itself. What your character says should tell us the tone of the words, rendering most of the words listed above unnecessary.

Flipping through a copy of American Gods by Neil Gaiman: most dialogue is tagged with “said” or its interrogatory counterpart, “asked.” 

What happens when you consistently avoid using the word “said” is that your readers will be focusing on the dialogue’s tags rather than the dialogue itself, which kinda defeats the purpose of dialogue. Seriously, imagine reading a book, and you’re reading an exchange of dialogue, and words like “upbraided” and “opined” kept cropping up. 

Get my meaning?

There are exceptions, there always are, but I just hate that people feel like it’s some great sin to use the word “said.” No, it’s not, so stop it.