I was reading a book with nine-year-old Ruadhri the other day, and it really grated on me that the author only said ‘said’ in the dialogue. What a wasted opportunity both to enhance the story with suggesting how the characters said what they said (whispered, gasped, cried etc), and to expand the reader’s vocabulary. Children will only learn new words if they’re exposed to him. OK, you don’t need to go too mad in children’s books, but at the very least I would expect to see a dozen or more variations.
Quite a lot of adult books only manage a narrow range of ‘said’ equivalents too. Come on, let’s get more creative and interesting!
Here are 25 alternatives to said, and that’s just scratching the surface:
Asked
Argued
Bellowed
Challenged
Cried
Croaked
Demanded
Gasped
Giggled
Grumbled
Guffawed
Laughed
Mumbled
Muttered
Offered
Pouted
Shouted
Screeched
Snarled
Suggested
Threatened
Whined
Whispered
Wondered
Yawned
Another 25 coming soon …