Sometimes when I’m reading something, either as an editor as a reader, I come across an awkward or clumsy construction that makes me stop and think, “Why on earth did this writer do this?” Nine times out of ten, it is to avoid “overusing” a common word.

Thing is, though, common words are just that: common. So common, in fact, that they’re invisible. The eye goes right over them. Examples of this are: he, she, is, was, were, did, had (as a helping verb), character names, and said.

This is important because a reader will not notice that you’ve used a character’s name twice in the same sentence if it’s needed to make the meaning clear. A reader will, however, notice if you’ve used some clumsy descriptor:

Mary burst into the room and upon seeing the hostages tied up in a corner, the tall blonde rushed to their aid.

Not only does it sound funny, but it actually makes things more complicated, especially to a nonvisual reader who might ask, “Okay, but where did the blonde come from?”

Also, a reader will not notice if you use said in dialogue attribution, because that’s what people do: they say their dialogue. They do not cough, smile, beam, chortle, chuckle, or laugh their dialogue. Try it sometime – you’ll find that it’s not really possible to speak while you’re performing these actions. A reader is far more likely to notice – and not in a good way – the avoidance of the word said than the overuse of it.

There are some other verbs that can be used. Asked, answererd, replied, and the occasional retorted are just fine. But if you’re going to use another word for said, you need to make sure of a couple of things.

First, is the verb describing a way of speaking? Ask is. Smile is not.

Second, is the verb intransitive? Far too often I see a dialogue attribution such as: she greeted, she admonished, she reprimanded with no direct object. A transitive verb must have an object, and to include the direct object (“Hello!” she greeted her sister.) is often painfully redundant, so you have the choice of either eliminating the dialogue or using a different verb.

Finally, a lot of writing/self-editing guides suggest eliminating unnecessary instances of the word had but do not go on to explain (probably assuming that writers will know that) this does not apply to formation of the past perfect tense (I had already been there for two hours when she finally arrived).

Now, off to work!