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Over 300 Ways To Say "Said"

C

Chessie

Guest
Yo. I got this from another writerly website and loved it so much I'm sharing it here. It's nice to have variety, yes? :)
 

Demesnedenoir

Myth Weaver
Why oh why must so many people open these sorts of articles with a lame strawman argument?

And I'd put way more cautions on that word list, a big % would be better off in beats rather than used as "direct replacements" for said, plus... you better have a very good reason to use ejaculated as a dialogue tag. heh heh.

Maybe in Bow Junka Wow Wow... hmm.
 
C

Chessie

Guest
Stop it you guys. Sheila is gonna come in here with a magical wand and make us disappear otherwise. *angel eyes*
 
While I get the general idea in the article posted. I'd like to offer the counterpoint contained in these two articles:

Part 1
Part 2

Part 2 specifically mentions the crusade against the word "said" and I think has a pretty strong argument to make for why it should be much more commonly used than it is. I've always felt like some writing rules just showed up at some point and have stuck around for no other reason than to be used to try to bludgeon newer/less experienced writers. Winston Churchill had a good quote illustrating what I mean:

"From now on, ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put."

He's obviously taking the rule to an absurd end, but I think it illustrates the general problem with rules like "Don't use said, it's lazy" or "always use complete sentences". I think it takes what should generally be a creative task that we should do for fun and tries to make it overly formulaic with rules and procedures that must be followed.

I don't say this to suggest that replacing "said" with another word is always bad, but sometimes I think it's good to challenge things that are starting to become "conventional wisdom" to see if they actually do make sense.
 

carroll

Acolyte
Chuck Palahniuk uses "say" pretty often. I love his writing style and don't feel overwhelmed with how often "say" is used in his text.

"And the Mommy says, "Try to at least stand up straight."
The kid rolls his shoulders back and imagines the headlights are a firing squad. He deserves pneumonia. He deserves tuberculosis.
See also: Hypothermia.
See also: Typhoid fever.
And the Mommy says, "After tonight, I'm not going to be around to nag you."
The bus motor idles, putting out a long tornado of blue smoke.
And the Mommy says, "So hold still, and don't make me spank you."
 
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Steerpike

Felis amatus
Moderator
If you're going to use a tag at all, rather than a beat or just leave the dialogue untagged, said is the best choice the vast majority of the time. Writers who strain too hard to avoid said end up with comical manuscripts.
 

Alyssa

Troubadour
If you're going to use a tag at all, rather than a beat or just leave the dialogue untagged, said is the best choice the vast majority of the time. Writers who strain too hard to avoid said end up with comical manuscripts.

^^
THIS

when you relate a story to someone else, how many times do you say "[name] opined/related/huffed/glowered/smirked/eja-(sorry sheila)". It's not natural and it detracts from the story. Use your fancy words for speaking where you need to and use said where you can, or drop it entirely.
 

Mike Chara

Scribe
When I'm writing dialogue, I try to find the best way to not detract from the story or tension or type of narrative. I'll try to explain.

If you're one of the old-style writers, like say... Raymond Feist or Eddings era, 90's and before – I find that when reading 'expressive' (we'll go with that) dialogue in these books it's not such a big deal. To try to explain this, I think it involves narrative. Feist's books are told as an omnipresent narrator, and so when I read his stuff, I often find myself imaging it's more a second telling – I imagine an old man on a pipe in a couch by a fire, telling me the story. "And so when the old man has dialogue tags that always end with adverbs", he said thoughtfully, or "with funny saids," he explained, I find that it doesn't break my immersion from the story because it is part of a meta-story. I imagine that an old man telling me the story would say these things.

However, I must also confess this is far from my favourite type of storyteller.

When it comes to true immersion in a book, I can't help but admit that I think it's all about strict third or first. You just feel more part of the story. It's because when you are reading, any words that are not part of the story are immersion breaking. "For example," he said, if I were instead to, say, keep "explaining this in form of italic examples," he said expressively, suddenly, you are aware that I am telling a story and you are not part of it – "because I am jamming adverbs or adjectives", he said extremely loudly, which, if you imagine you are viewing a story through a window, where the window is the form of media for transferring the story into pictures in your mind, all these random words and things are making the window nice and colourful, and good as colourful windows are, "it really does detract from the story," he said.

But I am by no means an expert, so take what I say as you will. Oh and one more.

"beats however, I find fit both narratives if used correctly and not just for the sake of it," he pressed the post button.
 
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Lilly

Acolyte
I love seeing these kinds of lists for said but I think that they should be reserved for special occasions. Often I have noticed that using something other than said/says tends to call too much attention to the tag. I would rather have my dialogue tags go somewhat unnoticed
 
C

Chessie

Guest
I love seeing these kinds of lists for said but I think that they should be reserved for special occasions. Often I have noticed that using something other than said/says tends to call too much attention to the tag. I would rather have my dialogue tags go somewhat unnoticed
Agreed. It really depends on the mood and emotion of the scene for me.
 
C

Chessie

Guest
When I'm writing dialogue, I try to find the best way to not detract from the story or tension or type of narrative. I'll try to explain.

If you're one of the old-style writers, like say... Raymond Feist or Eddings era, 90's and before — I find that when reading 'expressive' (we'll go with that) dialogue in these books it's not such a big deal. To try to explain this, I think it involves narrative. Feist's books are told as an omnipresent narrator, and so when I read his stuff, I often find myself imaging it's more a second telling — I imagine an old man on a pipe in a couch by a fire, telling me the story. "And so when the old man has dialogue tags that always end with adverbs", he said thoughtfully, or "with funny saids," he explained, I find that it doesn't break my immersion from the story because it is part of a meta-story. I imagine that an old man telling me the story would say these things.

However, I must also confess this is far from my favourite type of storyteller.

When it comes to true immersion in a book, I can't help but admit that I think it's all about strict third or first. You just feel more part of the story. It's because when you are reading, any words that are not part of the story are immersion breaking. "For example," he said, if I were instead to, say, keep "explaining this in form of italic examples," he said expressively, suddenly, you are aware that I am telling a story and you are not part of it — "because I am jamming adverbs or adjectives", he said extremely loudly, which, if you imagine you are viewing a story through a window, where the window is the form of media for transferring the story into pictures in your mind, all these random words and things are making the window nice and colourful, and good as colourful windows are, "it really does detract from the story," he said.

But I am by no means an expert, so take what I say as you will. Oh and one more.

"beats however, I find fit both narratives if used correctly and not just for the sake of it," he pressed the post button.
You would absolutely detest my writing then. The sort of storytelling you describe actually has flavor.
 
^Because I am too wordy, use too many descriptions, and use adverbial dialogue tags far too much. But on second thought, I don't care. I'm going to keep writing the way I write best!
 
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