A List of Said Bookisms or Dialog Tags

Posted by Unknown

This list relates to my "Kill the Said Bookisms and Dialog Tags" post. 

I’m sure that this is not a comprehensive list, so if I missed any, please let me know and I’ll amend the post. It might be a fun exercise to write a short scene in which you are only allowed to use said bookisms. Then take that same scene and replace all of the said bookisms with said and finally go through one last time and adjust your description so that the intent that you wanted the said bookism to communicate comes through your description and dialogue instead. Having to go through the extra work of describing and rewording dialogue might help in realizing that many of the said bookisms were never necessary in the first place and that the dialogue and description are actually alright the way that they are, just like in the Hemingway example.

barked
begged
bellowed
blared
bleated
cackled
chortled
coaxed
cooed
coughed
declared
demanded
exclaimed
expounded
gasped
groaned
hacked
haggled
harped
hissed
hooted
implored
jabbered
jeered
jested
joked
moaned
panted
pleaded
pondered
posited
pronounced
protested
queried
questioned
sang
screamed
shouted
sneezed
snickered
sniffed
spat
spewed
spumed
stammered
stated
stuttered
trilled
trumpeted
uttered
wailed
whimpered
whined
whispered
worried