I really want to enter this, however something struck me as kind of... eh. Might suggest changing it perhaps?

I kind of disagree with this. It's a common misconception among writers that the word "said" is blah and dull and should be avoided all cost, but according to most editors, it's quite the opposite. The overuse of words like "exclaimed" and "hissed" and "stated" is seen as unprofessional and a rookie mistake.

And just to prove I'm not pulling this from up my bum, I'll give some sources:

"The Use and Abuse of Dialogue Tags" by Anne M. Marble
"Basics: Dialogue" by Terry W. Erwin" (see point d for reference)
"Dialogue Tags" by Jennifer Jensen
"'Said Bookisms,' She Growled" by Margo Lerwill

They make somewhat differne tpoints, but there is a general consensus among them that "said" is the best and others should be used in moderation of what is going on (such as volume, etc) might not otherwise be clear to the reader.

I'm not trying to sound overly-demanding- I mean, you are the judges, and all, and you can run this contest basically however you want- but I guess I just wanted to make y'all aware of the fact that one of your preferences is considered amongst editors, professionals and critics to be a pitfall in otherwise good manuscripts, and generally sloppy writing.

Thanks.

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