One of the most controversial words among writers is four letters long, but it isn't a cuss word at all. The world? "Said."

Yep. Said.

There are two distinct schools of thought about this word; I'll present them both as I learned them, and let you draw your own conclusions. And then I'll editorialize, because that's what I do.

Number One: Said is boring. When you're writing a lot of dialogue, it gets repetitive. It's more interesting to switch it up; people don't just speak, they yell and pronounce and exclaim and editorialize. Switching up verbs keeps readers engaged.

Number Two: Said is accurate. While people vary how they speak, you can't physically cough a sentence, or growl one. When you try and get fancy, you end up sounding silly. Furthermore, said is an invisible word. Timing and pacing are important in dialogue; it's how you make things sound right. Because it's so important, a lot of people just leave out the attribution, but that gets confusing; sometimes readers lose track of who's speaking. But people don't notice the word said, so it's akin to not saying who spoke, but without any confusion.

It's a personal preference. As someone who writes a lot of dialogue, I really like the word said. I agree that there's a place for changing it up; sometimes people really do shout or yell or, yes, even editorialize. But most of the time, people just talk, and they say things. Said is a good, durable, highly useful word.

Strike a balance. But when in doubt, people speak.