Russ
Istar
I found an interesting comment on both these topics in a piece on using modern word processors by Robert J. Sawyer:
Also worth hunting down are exclamation marks. One can exclaim only short words or phrases, such as "Drat!" or "My God!" (Try to exclaim, "But it turned out that the alien planet they were on was really Earth!" It can't be done, and writing it that way just makes you seem histrionic.) And if you find two or more exclamation marks in a row — Holy cow!!! — eliminate all but one of them.
One thing you should not track down, though, is the word "said." Almost all of your speech tags should be of the form "he said" or "she said." Only beginners constantly look for alternatives to the serviceable, invisible "said." (For all his virtues, Stanley G. Weinbaum was a beginner when he wrote his classic 1934 story "A Martian Odyssey," which has a character named Putz ejaculating his lines . . .)