| abstract | - "Said Bookism?" Alice interrogated. "What's that?" "Well," Bob exposited, "it's a variety of Purple Prose in which the writer goes out of their way to avoid the word said." "Why would they do this?" ejaculated Alice. "Because," explicated Bob, "it was the fashion at one point. There were even 'said books' you could get mail order with lists of the words that can be used instead of said as saying said was discredited during that time. That's where the name of the trope comes from," he further proclaimed. "But Said Bookism itself is a Discredited Trope these days?" Alice queried. "Absolutely," confirmed Bob, "it's considered redundant," he proceeded, "because dialogue should speak for itself without needing fancy tags to convey its meaning and intention." "That makes sense," Alice concurred. "In the worst cases, the dialogue tags end up repeating what the dialogue itself is telling us," Bob stated in addition, revealing that in the worst cases the dialogue tags end up repeating what the dialogue itself is telling us. "Are there any similar tropes?" Alice requested. "There are!" enthused Bob. "It's not just like Purple Prose, but also sort of like Delusions of Eloquence and Author Vocabulary Calendar," he noted augustly. "So where can I see what it looks like?" Alice inquired. "Well," declared Bob, "right here..." Examples of Said Bookism include:
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