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trust:

ch4in:

calivie:

unff

i can’t contain my fucking feels

wut is self esteem

doe-eyed-delight:

mumblingsage:

alexandraerin:

cumaeansibyl:

rawbiredbest:

bekahboo2391:

Where has this been all my life!?

okay so
“said” is an invisible word. people don’t notice it. they notice quotes and the nouns that address who is saying it.
my personal rule is to use a word other than “said” if you otherwise can’t tell the emotion that is being portrayed in speech. overuse of alternatives just makes you look like you’re trying too hard.
writing is about style but, like art, you have to know some basics before delving into your novel.

Yes exactly
Brevity is best. Don’t use a fancy word where a simple one will do.
Also, can I just throw in one of my pet peeves, people who use “spoke” for dialogue attribution, like so
“My cat is on the ottoman,” she spoke.
NO THAT’S NOT RIGHT
oh, and don’t decide to avoid these words and substitute adverbs after “said” instead, because adverbs are clumps of hair in the plumbing system of your writing

I really dislike these lists.
I mean, “cheered” is not what happens when someone who is cheerful speaks. “Cheered” is what cheerleaders do. It makes great shorthand when a lot of people are shouting encouraging things, you can say they collectively “cheered”. But if someone is shouting “You can do it!”, just say they shouted “You can do it!”
“Mumbled” and “muttered” are pretty interchangeable, but “whispered”… actually, I can think of situations where “muttered” and “whispered” would overlap, too, but not “mumbled” and “whispered”. Those are different things. You are describing an entirely different situation depending on which you use.
Be wary of any list that offers up a bunch of words that may not even be adjectives as interchangeable pieces… heck, even adjectives aren’t always interchangeable.

LONG LIVE SAID
(although it is very useful to ask yourself “HOW did they say it?” as you’re writing, so you get the details right. If you get the details right, you won’t always need one of these words to convey how they said it.)

Beautiful

daisytropic-s:

q’d x

gnarlylove23:

My new love. :)