Where has this been all my life!?
this is cool + useful but by all means said is not dead!!!!! these words should be used INCREDIBLY sparingly because “said” and “says” are very nice neutral words that are absolutely not intrusive in the writing. “he said” flows so much better than “he acknowledged”, which just rips you out of the story!!
you should convey emotion in writing! it’s all well and good to use “he whispered” or “he yelled” or whatever but when you’re talking about regular speech stay away from shit like “remarked”. “chimed” and “beamed” are both words that will also rip you out of the story completely. they are not words you see normally!
use said!!!! use said as much as you can! if you use words in this list make sure that you use them sparingly! a little sprinkle is fine but using too many of them makes it look like you went through a thesaurus and it is just odd and obtrusive!