Okay, everyone say it with me.
"SAID IS DEAD."
There are so many other words you can use other than the boring 'said'.
In this example, two students, a witch and a dwarf, live in a modern fantasy world, and they have stolen a powerful spell book, and plan to become world known. In this scene Jocelyn (Dwarf) is pestering Morgan (Witch) to go through with the plan, but reluctantly she agrees. This is a snippet of dialogue told.
"C'mon, it will be fun!" Said Jocelyn. "They won't even know the spell book was gone."
"I don't know about this, Jo. Necromany is pretty messed up." Said Morgan.
"Do it for the vine." Said Jocelyn, pulling out her phone and pressed record.
Okay to me this type of wording makes me cringe. The dialogue is quite decent, but the actions...NO. Writing is about making the readers visualize the scene they are reading. It's a beautiful art form you can master (If I can do it, anyone can). The way 'said' is being repeated again and again and again, does not paint a picture in the readers mind. Descriptive words will be a lesson for another day. But how you describe the way a person has said something is a key factor of building a character (also another lesson, for another day).
Here is a correctly written one of the above.
"C'mon, it will be fun!" Bouncy, brown locks of hair hung from Morgan's arm, as Jocelyn pulled and swung. Her pleading voice made Morgan groan internally. "The head master hasn't even notice the spell book is missing."
"I don't know about this, Jo. Necromany is for sorcerers." Morgan grumbled under the pressure of her dwarven friend.
Digging in the inside of her cloak, Jocelyn held her mobile scrying stone, both hers and Morgan's face mirrored in the smooth surface of the purple crystal. "Do it for the vine."
You see how if you add a bit more of information it increases the clarity of the paint in the picture. With the correct example, we understand Morgan was feeling hesitant and slightly annoyed at her friend, and how Jocelyn was excited (somewhat naïve) about the situation, we can now tell a lot about their characters with only few bits of dialogue and action. And said wasn't written once!
Did you notice I changed the phone to a mobile scrying stone, to create more of a realistic sort of feel to the genre. Factors like that, create a more believable world. (Another lesson, for another day). But also using the famous app 'vine', it connects the modern world with the fantasy.
Another tip (told to me by a friend), you don't need to state who said what every single time. What I mean is, if you have an conversation between two characters, you don't need to say when the other speaks.
"So, has the package come yet?" The muffled, slightly robotic voice said urgently, over the phone.
"I said in a couple of days it would be here." She sighed exasperated.
"How long is a couple days?"
"As soon as you stop calling me!"
But, under some circumstances can said be used, like when you use descriptive and/or action words (like in the example above). That's is when it okay to use, but it's your responsibility to know whether to add or remove a said. Choose wisely.
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