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Thursday, November 03, 2005

Said substitutes

When writing dialog it's okay to use "said" when you want to help the reader keep track of who's speaking. In fact it calls too much attention to your writing. rather than keeping the attention on the story, if you try to use a lot of different words instead of said.

But sometimes characters are "blustering" and "cooing" and "lisping" and occasional use of them can add some sparkle to the story and the character.

Write the alphabet down the side of the page. For each letter come up with as many different ways to say "said" as you can.

1 comment:

  1. Deb’s list:

    announced
    breathed
    cajoled
    deferred
    echoed
    fielded
    gushed
    hissed
    insisted
    joked
    kvetched ; )
    lamented
    mentioned
    noted
    offered
    pondered
    queried
    responded
    stammered
    teased
    urged
    vented
    warned
    yammered
    zinged

    Jill’s list:

    announced
    barked
    called
    drooled
    escalated
    frothed
    gabbed
    howled
    issued
    jowled
    kilovolted
    lamented
    mewed
    nagged
    ordered
    pooped
    quaked
    roared
    spewed
    trumpeted
    uttered
    versed
    whispered
    xiphoided
    yodeled
    zinged

    Nichole’s list:

    annunciated, added, admitted, ameliorated, argued
    bellowed, bounced, beckoned,
    crowed, coughed, crooned,
    drawled, digressed
    estimated, examined,
    fumbled, frowned, fished, fawned, faltered,
    grumbled, guffawed
    hinted, haggled
    intimated, initiated,
    joked, jabbed, jested
    kvetched
    lamented, lingered
    meandered, moaned, murmured
    nudged, noticed,
    oozed, overstated, over-emphasized,
    poo-pooed, pried, pantomimed, pacified
    questioned, quacked, quibbled, quipped, queried
    reasoned, reminisced, renounced, reaffirmed, regressed
    slurred, stammered, seethed, stuttered
    thought-out-loud,
    undulated,
    volunteered, venerated
    whispered, waffled, wallowed, wondered, wandered
    x
    yammered, yelled, yodeled,
    z

    My list:

    argued
    bellowed, blustered, breathed
    cried, cooed, cautioned, cackled, croaked, called
    effused
    fluttered
    gagged, gulped, groaned
    howled, hooted, hissed, hinted, huffed, hushed
    joked
    kidded
    laughed
    muttered, moaned
    nattered
    panted
    questioned
    roared, ragged
    sighed, shushed, screamed, stuttered, sang, shouted
    tattled, told, tittered
    ululated
    voiced
    wondered, warbled
    yelled, yelped, yodeled
    zoned

    Here’s the list from the page where I got the idea. (It was a rather schoolish site so unfortunately I didn’t save it to give it credit.)

    argued
    bellowed
    cajoled
    declared
    exclaimed
    fretted
    guessed
    howled
    inquired
    jeered
    kibitzed
    lamented
    muttered
    noted
    objected
    protested
    questioned
    repeated
    stated
    taunted
    uttered
    vouched
    whimpered
    yelled
    zinged

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