Talking Words

Hello fellow writers!

Many times, writers find it hard to come up with alternate words when writing. This includes words for dialogue (if that's the right word: I don't know the difference between that and dialog. :P).

Here are a list of great words for dialogue, from Wikipedia:

acknowledged, agreed, announced, answered, asked, asserted, articulated, argued, babbled, barked, begged, belched, bellowed, boomed, claimed, commented, communicated, complained, conceded, concluded, confirmed, contended, continued, declared, denied, described, drawled,drooled, echoed, inquired, exclaimed, explained, expressed, found, gasped, gestured, giggled, granted, grumbled, hinted, hollered, illustrated, implied, informed, insisted, jeered, laughed, maintained, mentioned, mumbled, muttered, nagged, narrated, noted, observed, offered, ordered, panted, pleaded, pointed out, puffed, questioned, recounted, refuted, related, reminded, repeated, replied, reported, responded, restated, revealed, sang, screamed, scoffed, shouted, sighed, simpered, smiled, snapped, sneered, snickered, sniffed, speculated, spewed, sputtered, squeaked, squealed, stated, suggested, supposed, told, uttered, voiced, warbled, warned, went, whined, whispered, yelled


Proofreading tip: Never have the word "said" too many times. When proofreading, and if you find this, replace the word "said" with some of the words above. Make sure the context is correct, though.



You can still use the word "said," but balance it out with other words. If you do use "said," you can always add in an adverb, to improve the effect of the dialogue.

Examples:


"Gee, what a great teacher," Holly said sarcastically.
"That Seth kid thinks he's so great," Jerry said disdainfully, "but he's just a great windbag."
"Hello all! Great morning, isn't it?" Christine said cheerfully.

*note from a writer: This may just be a personal preference, but try not to use the word "reply" to much when inserting dialogue. Like I said, this may just be me, but it is kind of a bulky but delicate word, and should be used sparingly.*



Peace out, writers!