Maria whirled on Betty “I will not take another minute of it.” Maria breathed huskily. 

Betty twittered back at her “Oh go away.” 

“Not another minute…” Maria exhaled like bull in a china shop snorting.

“Stuff it” Betty said windily.

Ok, wait a minute.  Between all that breathing, twittering, and exhaling I’ve forgotten what they were saying and am having a hard time following the action.  When it comes to attributing speech to your characters you need to stop using helper words. 

It wouldn’t hurt to go in and remove two thirds of the adjectives and adverbs you’ve used to fill gaps where your story can’t carry itself.

But how is the reader supposed to know who’s talking?

Ninety-nine percent of the time someone is speaking you should use the word “said.”  If you feel it is absolutely necessary, you can throw in the word “asked” a few times.

That’s it.

But isn’t that boring?  Only if what your characters are saying is boring.  Is it?

There is a very good reason to use the word “said” when attributing speech to your characters, that’s because for readers the word is invisible.  People read it and their mind doesn’t even acknowledge that it was there. 

Now of course there are always exceptions, but the rule is ninety-nine percent of the time, use it.  If the story, the plot, the action, require something different then by all means go ahead and use an adjective or adverb.  But make it count.

Your writing will be better if you give your characters interesting things to say, and action that moves the story along, rather than getting flowery with how you tell your reader your characters are speaking.