I'm very sorry for not updating for I forgot how many days. A lot of random things came up. I'll try to be more consistent in the future
Apologies for the confusing title. What I was trying to say is that you shouldn't overuse 'said' but you don't need to avoid it completely.
But you still shouldn't overuse it.
There are so many words that you can use instead of 'said'.
For example, explained, exclaimed, yelled, called, shouted, sang, squealed, whispered, grumbled, mumbled, and murmured, to name a few.
Just be careful using those words. You want to paint an image in your reader's minds, and these words can completely demolish it.
Like if you wrote '"I'm so excited for the party!" I grumbled.' That would ruin it. The word 'grumbled' has a sort of bitter and annoyed tone to it, and you wouldn't grumble about how excited you are for a party. Maybe you would exclaim it. Maybe you would sing it. (Not literally) Maybe you would squeal it. But you wouldn't grumble it.
Try to even out the times you say 'said' with everything else. Don't forbid yourself from using it, because you are going to. There's not much of a way around it. Only use it as much as you use other words.
So said is not dead. Said is very much alive, and said is as healthy as any other word. Said is fine. Said is not dead.
Okay, this might be a little annoying, but please vote. You have no idea how much morale boost it gives me. Seeing that notification that so and so voted on chapter something on this book is legitimately the best feeling in the world. So if you liked the chapter, please vote. It really means a lot.