Quick Tip: 3.23.05
It’s fun as you grow up as a writer, learning new words to use and deciding where to put them. Fun words include “murmur,” “whisper,” “intone,” “slur,” “lisp” and so on.
Unfortunately, I’ve been learning that these are words good writers should use very sparingly as verbs. It’s certainly more colorful to write things like “‘I hate you,’ she growled”, or “‘Good day ladies,’ she hissed”. But most editors don’t like “growled” or “hissed.” You’re going to have to go with plain old vanilla “said.”
I always worried that “said” sounded too repetitive. “‘Hi,’ she said. ‘Hi,’ he said. ‘How are you?’ she said. ‘Fine,’ he said.” A teacher I had a few months ago told me something helpful, though: “said” is something of an invisible word, like “a” or “the.”
This has been confirmed by editors. “I think ‘quipped’ or ‘murmured’ is a lot more specific than the generic ‘said,’” said a bridal magazine editor I spoke with. “But every time I put it in a story, it gets cut by people above me. So yes, I think it’s true–most editors hate anything but ‘said.’”
If you just really, really think you can add more to a story about somebody speaking, you can get around it. Another editor recommended going with “‘…, she said, averting her eyes’ or ‘…she said, dropping her voice’… so you get the said, but also the adjectival thing in there too.”
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