On the Subject of "Said"...

[Tenacity]

I think the reason many writers advise using 'said' over other, more descriptive variants is that how dialogue is uttered should be easily inferred from the context. If I know character A is angry, am I going to imagine them speaking with a soft, gentle voice? Of course not. This makes saying '".......," she shouted' a waste of words. Generally, I'd say the best thing to do is either a) use the 'said' tag, b) use no tag (only if it is obvious who is already talking) or c) use an action tag instead, as Neo Emolga suggested.

In writing, the simplest styles are often the best styles.

[lorii]

As long as the writer varies their writing by using various sentence lengths and whatnot, I don't have a problem when they use 'said' a lot. I admit that it often sounds less awkward than otherwise wordier or complex phrases people intentionally use to replace 'said', as several of you mentioned. I'm more interested in what the characters are saying than how they go about saying it anyways.

[Felly]

I just go with whatever feels right. I don't really use said very often, if at all. I don't mind seeing it used, but I don't feel like it should be used repetitively. I feel like reading "he said" or "she said" or "*noun/person/whatever* said" gets repetitive and kinda dry and boring. Said can be used correctly, if the dialogue being uttered and the emotion from it can be inferred from the dialogue itself, like Tenacity said, but otherwise, I feel like other dialogue tags could be more fitting.

[Noblejanobii]

"Said" is a funny word. It's one of those words that if you use it too many times, your work becomes repetitive, but if you don't use it enough, then your work is somewhat stale. I've found that many writers have difficulties finding the correct balance and I myself have a hard time with it is as well. However, if the correct balance is achieved, then using said is not that bad, just try to diversify so it's not used every sentence.