beth (defunct)

It was a warm day in the city. Hot. The sun beat down without mercy. The slats of my blinds provided only slivers of shade. The rest of me was in the hot light.

I was thirsty. Wanted something to drink. Reached down into my desk for the bottle of whiskey that I kept in the drawer. I took a long pull from the bottle.

A bell chimed to let me know someone had just entered my office. It was the bell on the door that led outside. Someone, I knew, was coming.

That someone turned out to be a women. She—and she was a she— had long legs that stretched from her body to the ground, and wore a red dress that covered parts of that body. Some other parts—her shoulders and upper back—weren't covered by the dress, and gleamed with the color of her flesh.

She opened her mouth to speak. "I need a detective. To solve a case," she said in a smooth, husky voice. It was a beautiful voice. Like a fine red wine.

"I'm a detective. I solve cases," I said with my far lower voice. It was the voice of a tired man. And I was tired. But this woman was here.

"I'm here," the woman said, "because I heard you were a detective. I was told that by a friend. A good friend."

"You are here," I said. "And also I am here."

yes? no? maybe? other?

I've also seen people "nod no"

for the phrase "nodded his head no" i found no results in google ngrams, which searches through published books, but 300,000 results on google web search, many of which look to be from fan fiction, blog posts, and video descriptions

We will of course begin with the first of the vowels - furthermore, the first of the letters. Pointed like the upthrust knife of some enterprising murderer, complete with quillon, it evokes no esteemed deeds. One wonders if this prickly letter climbed over corpses to get to its current prime position. You see, during one point in English’s history, it numbered only fourth in listings of the runes.

Lagging A by only four spots, this following glyph’s odd trio of arms bring to mind Satan’s pitchfork. How tragic that this awkward form, of all options, is most common out of all of Latin’s glyphs. But you might say that, similar to a fork, it’s a tool that most of us can't go through a day without using.

One can hardly deny that the central vowel of the alphabet arouses the ego. A challenge, no doubt, to speak of the self, yet not use that support column of a letter. Just one stroke, top to bottom, perhaps capped at the ends the same way many other beams are. How dull, as matters of ego so often tend to be.

The next letter: a perfect circle! Maximally streamlined and elegant. An egg, which might hatch and reveal, well, anything. It makes sense that this shape appears in many alphabets, and even has a twin in the Hindu-Arabic numerals which we use with the Latin alphabet. It’s difficult imagining anything else quite as pure, as elemental. The letter is supremely useful in expressing surprise, addressing a listener, and even lyrically lauding a subject.

The final vowel is a semicircle bowl open towards the heavens, with tall arms reaching skyward in plaintive prayer. Given this pathetic form, it's odd that not one, not two, no, THREE slots of the alphabet are filled by it and its alter egos V and W. A yawning vessel waiting to be filled, it offers little on its own.

"Some people are too concerned with trying to avoid using the word 'said' for dialogue," the author proclaimed.

"But isn't it bad writing to repeat a word too frequently?" her pupil queried.

"Not if it's a word with a common, basic function," the author responded. "You might as well try to avoid using the word 'the'," she added.

Short version is "Beth is right."
Middle version is "Beth is right, and the fact that so many people tell new authors to avoid said is endlessly frustrating."
Long version is for another time, but I will add one thing on a similar vein of "Dispelling harmful writing 'tips'"

In a related note, please be careful with adverbs but don't totally ignore them. The general rule of thumb is to use them only when they provide new information. "She smiled happily" is redundant and the adverb ads nothing to that. "She smiles sadly" provides new context that changes how the smile is interpreted. This can also be used to provide contrast with a later physical action. "She said calmly" probably isn't needed unless there was a reason for the character to not seem calm. "She said calmly through gritted teeth" sets up a contrast between tone and appearance. "She said angrily through gritted teeth" is redundant.

The old man chuckled merrily. "I love adverbs!" he boomed expansively.