A while back I did a post wondering if there are really 115 synonyms for “walk.” It was more a goofy exploration into how some of those synonyms would look in gif form than a genuine dive into the question.
That said, I still have yet to promenade anywhere. Weird.
Anyway, today I’m tackling “said” with the same gif treatment. I searched for a poster like the one I used in the “walk” post, and know what I discovered?
Most “said” synonym graphics are for elementary-aged kids.
Did you know “said” died?! Oh the humanity!
There were several lists with this as the idea. Said is boring and old and tired and even dead so stop using it. Instead, use sang. Because we all sing words when we talk to people.
Of course by “we,” I mean Disney princesses and elves and the occasional shiny crab. If your character isn’t one of those things, having them sing to one another might be a little awkward.
I suppose characters could smirk instead of say things. But how do you smirk words?
“I’m going to the store. Do you want anything?”
“Yeah, I need peanut butter,” I smirked.
“What? I didn’t understand because your mouth was closed.”
Same with quaked. How do you quake a word?
In my search for “said” synonyms, I found this, which may be for students but is definitely free of cartoon gravestones. I appreciated that it was obviously a photograph of something that came from a binder. It made my teacher heart happy.
According to that, there are 234 synonyms for “said,” including exposed.
Yeah, I don’t want to think about that either.
Upbraided might not be too bad though. If I knew what it meant. Giphy has exactly one match.
So I guess use that one if you want to confuse everyone.
And maybe don’t use wrangled unless you’re writing a western or . . . a cartoon.
Now, I do want to say that most of these synonyms are fine. I’ve used a few of them. But many also fall under the old show vs. tell argument. For example, if Bill is giving a speech, we don’t really need to know he orated if you’re showing us that.
More important, though, is to not mourn “said” prematurely. Using flowery tags is fine for elementary kids, who are learning about language itself (hence the abundance of graphics targeting that age). Not only is “said” not dead, it can relay who is saying what without drawing attention to itself (read this for more about dialogue tags).
Do you have favorite “said” synonyms? Or do you prefer letting “said” carry the load when tags are needed?
Allison Maruska 
Elmore Leonard, who had a long and illustrious career in writing, and who wrote more than fifty books. Many of them made into movies, (“Get Shorty”, et al) had ten rules for writing:
#3 Never use a verb other than “said” to carry dialogue
#4 Never use an adverb to modify the verb “said”
Simple, no?
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Indeed! Btw, apologies for taking so long to see/approve your comment. It slipped right by me! 😮
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Thanks for sharing. There are so many other options for ‘said.’ Interesting post!
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Thanks for reading! 🙂
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Great post with good graphics, Allison. “Said” does get a little boring, but I agree that serious writers need to stick with it for just the reason you gave: to not call attention to itself.
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Glad you enjoyed it. 🙂
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Reblogged this on Barbara Strickland and commented:
The more I learn the more I don’t know 😂
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Awesome post, but is nothing sacred anymore?😂
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Haha, Allison, this is very good. I always use said because I think to use other words takes away from what is being said [that reads like a riddle, doesn’t it?]
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Reblogged this on Anna Dobritt — Author.
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Thanks for sharing! 😎
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Reblogged this on Author Don Massenzio and commented:
Check out this great post from Allison Maruska’s blog on the fate of the word ‘said’.
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Thanks for sharing! 😀
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You’re welcome
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Love the gif for “quaked!” Ha ha! Writing masters I’ve heard speak of the matter always say stick with “said” or nothing at all if it’s clear who’s talking.
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I’ve heard the same thing and have taken it to heart. An editor once told me I needed a few more tags!
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So I says….
Always liked that one. 🙂
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Great for comedic effect. 😎
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Said when needed. Other actions or descriptions when possible.
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Same. I’m a big fan of action beats.
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I don’t stray too far from said. I might throw in an answered, retorted, or repeated, but nothing much fancier than that. The dialogue should be leaping off the page, not the dialogue tags 🙂
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Exactly! Flowery tags try too hard. 😉
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That was a lot of GIFs.
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Indeed.
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