Different Ways of Saying "Said"

I agree with you, Lydia (obviously). Personal preference, maybe?
Lol. Rosey, maybe you shouldn't read anything I've written then. I cut tags quite often- though I don't think I have whole pages of conversation as such.

Four lines seem to be around my limit before I put one tag or another. Usually action tags, such as 'Sara raised her eyebrow. "You know that's not possible."'

I like the fact that a list was posted for it does help. However I agree with everyone!! It's always good to be open-minded nonetheless it's never good to forget about the word "said". Here are a few more words to add to the list:

approved, articulated, bragged, claimed, concurred, coughed, differed, disagreed, disapproved, disclosed, disputed, enunciated, expressed, imagined, judged, mouthed, objected, opposed, quivered, recited, rejected, reported, revealed, spatted, vented, verbalized, voiced, wheezed.

But the fact that said is such an easy word to skim over makes it a good word to use if you want to keep the action moving, but sometimes replacing them can add to the story. I personally think that half of the time it should be said, and the other words can be used for the other 50% of the time.

Said is an amazingness word, but you need to be careful to avoid this:

"Ow!" Bob said.
"Sorry," Alex said, ignoring him.

That's just flat out irritating - when repeated too close together, said feels repetitive. Try this:

"Ow!" Bob said. Alex continued to work as he apologized.

You, sir, are officially awesome. Thanks for this!

Stephen King would not approve. xD

Oh well, I found the list amusing. Thanks for posting!

You could also use:

Yawned
Yearned

unsure
uncovered

discovered

whistled
whimpered

vowed

quoted
quized
quarreled


Hope I helped!

In general I think the repetition of 'said' doesn't really register at all with a reader. At least it doesn't for me.

But it's a good list.

I'm with LydiaB, Nutty, Snoink and Helpful McHelpfulpants in this one. I don't notice the word said. Plus, I just want to add that I think that the dialogue itself should itself be emotive enough to ensure that you don't need a tag most of the time. Said should almost always be enough.

I am SOOOOOOOO writing these down in my jounal. I've been in desprate need of a list like this. THANKS

Is there a word that can be used for instances like "What? How could that be?"? Asked isn't "powerful" enough, and demanded doesn't really work either.