There’s nothing wrong with the word “said.” Yes, the word “said” appears a gazillion times in your manuscript, and at some point you’ll get the urge to change it to “replied” or “agreed” or “remarked” or “explained” or “related” — or the worst, “stated” — just to change things up, but you really don’t have to. Although there are the rare cases, perhaps at the height of an action-packed scene, when an alternate, such as “gasped” or “shrieked,” might be a good choice, generally speaking there’s no need to abstain from your use of the word “said.” “Said” says it all. And the lovely thing about “said” is that, as many times as it appears in your book, if the story is compelling enough, the reader should hardly notice it. Like it’s punctuation.
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Yep, said usually becomes invisible, though still serves its purpose.
I’ve noticed that certain kinds of typo can be invisible, too. Certain uses of apostrophe (worlds’ vs world’s), we’re vs were, sometimes too rather than to; with the context of the sentence helping the reader “correct” them unknowingly………
Great tip! So true.
A great reminder!