Voices of the Ribbons©.

 What to say if not 'Said'? Has the verb 'said' become obsolete? Recently, someone (on Twitter?) raised the question: "Does anybody else hate the word 'said' as much as I do?" which I took to imply that this particular person has a personal dislike of the verb in question. I asked for enlightenment, genuinely curious as to why this might be the case, but have yet to receive a  response. It did, however, raise a valid question. Is the word 'said' genuinely unnecessary or obsolete? There is a great deal of writing advice in circulation advising against over-use of this word in dialogue. But I argue that 'said', in the same way as any other word, has its place if used in the right way and in the right places. It's all about context. To my way of thinking, 'said' is a neutral speech tag. It merely defines 'who' spoke without assigning emphasis to the manner in which the content was spoken.  As an example, take the dialog

 World-Building Or How not to assume your readers are fools. There is world-building, and then there is WORLD-BUILDING, and the two aren't necessarily the same. There is so much information, so many articles and so much advice from so many sources on the Do's and Don't's of writing. As a relative newcomer to the world of publishing, having only recently had my third novel published, I find myself constantly researching ways to do things better, seeking honest advice and critique of my work, and analyzing feedback. One of the subjects which interest me most is that of world-building. In the course of my research, (and I wish I could recall where I read or heard this), somebody made the very astute observation that we 'should not assume our readers are fools'. It took me a while to figure out exactly what this meant or how to apply this critical piece of advice. In the end, this is what I, personally, took away from it. We don't have to fill in every single bl