There are several ways to say “said”, such as replied; asserted; stated; opined; declared, etc., but don’t overdo it; too much variety gets annoying as well. When expression is required, use substitutes to avoid adverbs, such as “he yelled” vs. “he said loudly.” The feeling behind it can also be described by how the character looks, his or her expression, or body language. Only a small portion of communicating is done via words.
Marcha's Two-Cents Worth 
A good reminder. For the most part, most dialogue tags are not necessary. I searched my ms yesterday for “said” and made the necessary changes, usually recasting the passage to eliminate the need for a tag. I also search for “just” — one of my overused words, and now have to add “so” to my list. Good grief. Not to mention “starting to …”
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Great reminder from you as well on finding those over-used words! One entirely useless phrase I’ve seen a lot is “in order to…”
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