When you write a story, one of the first things you want to do is to use a word other than "said." After all, said is a boring word. It is out of the way, gentle, and not really strong sounding either. While this makes it great for dialogue, sometimes it gets boring. Other times, your dialogue is so intense that a simple said just won't cut it. It helps the story become more powerful.
Or, it can make your story absolutely unbearable.
Some writers, especially inexperienced writers, decide to spurce up their writing by using other words for said... all the time. This gets annoying really quickly and tends to make the reader stop reading. Because of this, I usually recommend sticking with said. After all, you can never be too careful.
Then again, on the other hand, other verbs can really make the piece powerful. So... when should you use these verbs, and how much?
First of all, what you should look for is when you want to describe the voice when it cannot be easily described with an adverb. Look at this:
"I can't believe it," he said quietly.
"I can't believe it," he whispered.
When I say "said quietly" it seems to have a more disappointed feeling than the latter. The latter is almost excited.
The general rule is, if you don't hear it that way, don't use the verb however tempting it is.
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