[quote=@Ammokkx]
"Don't use said," phrased in that way, is inherently bad advise. "Said" is not only a fine word, but needlessly forcing yourself not to use it is not only an exercise in frustration and futility, but also incredibly obnoxious.

Ask yourself this: Why are you writing? If the answer is "To make art" then, yes, you should absolutely avoid 'said'
[/quote]

These two statements, they kinda contradict each other.

I'm also going to say that if someone is writing "to make art" they're doing it for the wrong reasons. You shouldn't write to make art, you should write to express something that has meaning to you, regardless of how "artsy" that is. I've never met someone who reads books for the prose, its about the story and the message, regardless of how that's presented. I don't think it's about mass appeal or trying to be popular, because if using simple prose made things more popular then Ayn Rand wouldn't have so many fans. Some of the best fiction doesn't do anything extraordinary with its prose. 1984 has very basic prose when you look at it but that doesn't make it any less emotionally draining a read.

It comes down to individual style in these situations, unless someone is using "said" after every single statement to the point that its noticeable it really doesn't matter how much they use it, unless someone completely refuses to imply and puts everything out in words show don't tell is an individual style thing.

Honestly in my opinion the worst writing advice is... all of it. Writing isn't like architecture where there are specific rules and specifications that you have to set out for your product to be accepted. I think about it this way, Picasso's paintings are horrible anatomically, none of his human figures are drawn realistically, but criticizing Picasso for not drawing good people is useless because drawing anatomically correct people isn't his art style.

Writing is creativity, it's an artistic exercise, people have styles and those styles may not appeal to you. That's not the fault of the writer and you shouldn't expect them to change to fit your wants. There is no objectivity, there is only popular opinion, and a lot of times popular opinion stinks.

But that's just my opinion.