Words to use instead of 'said'?

[James :)]

I have no idea if this thread is already a thing, but I enjoy writing fanfiction, and I'm not really keen on writing "said/says/say". I use it every now and then but it kind of makes the dialogue in my fanfics look bland. 

[Bombadil]

spoke, told, explained, exclaimed, whispered, shouted, gasped, wavered, replied

ok, that's just quick off the top of my head.

[EllieM]

offered, mused, retorted, blurted, enjoined, where's my scrabble dictionary

[Misato]

If using said bothers me, I usually just drop all the "he" saids and "she" saids for the section and just rely on quotes to connote speaker transitions until that section is done.

[TerriT]

sighed, moaned, groaned, grunted, coughed, screamed...where is my head at?

[wheat thins are delicious]

If using said bothers me, I usually just drop all the "he" saids and "she" saids for the section and just rely on quotes to connote speaker transitions until that section is done.

I suggest this.  Reading a long section of dialogue can get tiresome it there are a lot of he "said/she said"s involved.

[HoneyStrums]

If using said bothers me, I usually just drop all the "he" saids and "she" saids for the section and just rely on quotes to connote speaker transitions until that section is done.

yes my favourite authors use this ^^^,

You can also use different words for, other people joining into a conversation too.

interrupted,
interjected,
offered,
began,
replied,
continued,

Think of it this way, in long conversations the quote marks replace the word said. Saying a name after the quote marks implies who said it, without the need for the word said to be used. But it doesn't flow right without a word, so you can expand on the situation by adding situational words, or how a character is saying it. Focus more on, elements like, how they feel about something, how would they emotionally react. What is the point they are trying to make.

What do we use words for?
Agree, disagree, Demand, Question, Dismiss, persuade, joke, provoke, intimidate, caution.

How would they feel and how would what they say come across?

Are they arguing?

Rejected, retorted, dismissed, stressed, shouted, refused, barked, snapped, raged.

Ok I'll choose to stop here, but these are just arguing words you can use, what about agreeing?

Agreed, conceded, surrendered.

I'm no expert but this is what seems to be done. I hope this helps to give you some idea how you can come up with your own "said substitutes" so you can find the right one for your characters.

[EllieM]

sighed, moaned, groaned, grunted, coughed, screamed...where is my head at?

"...somewhere in the vicinity of my dictionary, apparently" she mused...

[Klaus]

I tend to use noted, exclaimed, remarked, and mused. On the other hand, "he/she said" is used so commonly because it's invisible to readers. If you're already having redundancy issues, swapping said for another word is simply going to make things worse as these words are not invisible. As others have said, it's much better to work it out through dialog. Tricky, but definitely worth it.

[Jill F]

ejaculated

[Eris]

loquaciously elucidated 

[Michaela Whimsy]

I would like to proclaim that all of my rebuttles to any thing anyone has affirmed or inferred should be articulated accurately to anyone who has concurred or debated that in order to meta about things which have been dictated or directed should be presumed to already having been hypothesized or scuttlebutted so it does not need reverberated or regurgitated.

I think I may have stepped on a few...  I enjoy sentences which are rediculously verbose, structurally unsound, and horribly sparged in topic with complete disregard for the very verbicide the elicitor was assuredly trying to prevent.


Sorry....  Me am nerd!

[Michaela Whimsy]

ejaculated

Body functions are always very visual words for said...  Puked, coughed, sniffled crapped, cried, whined, whimpered, spewed, choked, hacked

[EllieM]

...or you could employ the vernacular of today's youth:
"so she was all like meh and I was all like whatever...."
or possibly, stepping back half a generation,
"so she goes meh, and so I goes yeah right..."

[Felix]

Announced, mumbled, um. I'm not a very good thesaurus. I usually figure out how to avoid this problem by first looking at how the talking or hearing person is feeling and then finding words that fit that filter.

[Sephirah]

When I write, I try to use as little of this as possible, pointing out who said what. Instead, what I sometimes do is, where possible, put in a reaction to what was said. I think sometimes it can make a conversation more fluid and actually makes the "he said/she said" redundant.

As an example:

"No, you don't understand. There just isn't time for all that. We have to go. We have to go now. Get your things." Alex said.

"Okay, give me five minutes and I'll meet you out front." Beth replied, starting to hurriedly pack the small duffel bag she'd grabbed from the top of the wardrobe.

I would change that to something like this:

"No, you don't understand. There just isn't time for all that. We have to go. We have to go now. Get your things."

Beth knew he was right. But she still had practically a house worth of junk she just couldn't do without. Alex was understandably impatient. The world was going to hell and they wouldn't be safe. Even so, the tiny duffel bag seemed woefully inadequate to cram in half a lifetime's worth of memories.

"Okay." She grabbed a handful of shirts, pants and underwear from where they'd been unceremoniously dumped on the bed. "Give me five minutes and I'll meet you out front."

A brief nod, and before she could say another word he disappeared. Thirty seconds later the sound of the Lexus grumbling into life gave Beth a sudden urgency and an irrational fear he might leave without her.

[Jill F]

When I write, I try to use as little of this as possible, pointing out who said what. Instead, what I sometimes do is, where possible, put in a reaction to what was said. I think sometimes it can make a conversation more fluid and actually makes the "he said/she said" redundant.

As an example:

"No, you don't understand. There just isn't time for all that. We have to go. We have to go now. Get your things." Alex said.

"Okay, give me five minutes and I'll meet you out front." Beth replied, starting to hurriedly pack the small duffel bag she'd grabbed from the top of the wardrobe.

I would change that to something like this:

"No, you don't understand. There just isn't time for all that. We have to go. We have to go now. Get your things."

Beth knew he was right. But she still had practically a house worth of junk she just couldn't do without. Alex was understandably impatient. The world was going to hell and they wouldn't be safe. Even so, the tiny duffel bag seemed woefully inadequate to cram in half a lifetime's worth of memories.

"Okay." She grabbed a handful of shirts, pants and underwear from where they'd been unceremoniously dumped on the bed. "Give me five minutes and I'll meet you out front."

A brief nod, and before she could say another word he disappeared. Thirty seconds later the sound of the Lexus grumbling into life gave Beth a sudden urgency and an irrational fear he might leave without her.

I like this.

[Pica Pica]

Said is almost invisible though, it's best to stick with it most of the time because the other words bring attention to themselves.

[HoneyStrums]

Said is almost invisible though, it's best to stick with it most of the time because the other words bring attention to themselves.

Sometimes you want to draw attention the word if its a descriptive one .

But I like, Sephirahs Tip