The Word "Said" is Fine

Neil Gaiman is an  author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre and films, including the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods (one of my personal favorites), Coraline, and The Graveyard Book. He has won a Hugo, Nebula, and Bram Stoker, as well as the 2009 Newbery Medal and 2010 Carnegie Medal in Literature. He is the first author to win both the Newbery and the Carnegie medals for the same work. In other words, this is an author who knows what he is talking about.

On his blog he was recently asked the following:

I keep seeing different opinions on the use of 'said'. Some people say that said should be substituted for other words, like 'argued' or 'murmured', etc. But I've seen other people saying that publishers actually dislike that and prefer said to be used more. As a published author, which have you found is truer?

His answer is essentially what I have been telling you guys all year:

“Said’s” are invisible. They vanish onto the page. The eye barely sees them — they become one with the inverted commas that indicate that something is being said. They’re the arrows on the speech balloons that show you who’s saying what. Lots of authors, when they start out, remember from school that you shouldn’t repeat words too much, and are careful to replace each “said” with “growled” “uttered” “yelped’ “hissed” “exclaimed” “asseverated” “muttered” “affirmed” and so on, and cannot work out why people dismiss the writing as amateurish. Use them, but use them sparingly. It’s like salt in a dish. Too much and it’s all you taste.

 I stand vindicated.