(I don't believe in deleting things if anyone can learn from them; so I'm leaving this up. Please read the lower comments, as they're more helpful. Sorry about my 'help', I was going on very little sleep and sick at the time and thought it'd be a good idea.)

So, you've finished writing your fiction, but upon proof-reading it, you find that you use a few words over and over, maybe words like 'said' and 'trot'. Well, that's where word choice comes into effect. A large vocabulary will help you avoid this pitfall, though if your still having trouble thinking of a way to diversify your words, a thesaurus can save you. Just be careful, as many people try to use this method and come up with very wacky sentences because they don't attempt to understand the new word they're using, and just slap it in because it's a synonym.

Let's get an example; the word 'said'.
"I just don't know what went wrong," said Ink Blot, hanging his head.
"Well... You did use some words in your story that just made no sense," said Quill Tip.
"I used a thesaurus! All those words were synonyms to the ones I originally had," Ink Blot said.
"Oh, that explains it," Quill Tip said, rolling his eyes.
"And now my story is a laughing stalk among my fellow peers." Ink said, sighing heavily.

Okay, that example is big enough to show what I mean. Now, lets get some word diversity.

"I just don't know what went wrong," said Ink Blot, hanging his head.
"Well... You did use some words in your story that just made no sense," remarked Quill Tip.
"I used a thesaurus! All those words were synonyms to the ones I originally had," Ink Blot declared.
"Oh, that explains it," Quill Tip stated, rolling his eyes.
"And now my story is a laughing stalk among my fellow peers." Ink uttered, sighing heavily.

Now, read both those examples. Doesn't the first one appear to be dry and drag on a bit compared to the second? It's all the same stuff, except for a single word each sentence. Point being, overusing words is a downfall to some writers, as it becomes a chore for the reader to read what they put effort into. And, by changing the word 'said' into something else, you're able to convey more feeling. If someone is just constantly saying something, then the reader will believe them to be droning on in a slightly monotone voice. However, if a character declares, utters, etc, something, then it'll allow the reader to better see the events play out like how you imagined them to.

And lastly, don't misuse synonyms, as that's a one way ticket to making your readers confused. If you have a character recite something, then it's much different than simply saying something. Reciting would be like saying something from memory that a character does/has done a lot before, like a priest reciting a verse from a holy book, or someone talking aloud about something in a book they're reading, like a summoning; you'd recite the words.

Anyways, I hope that I didn't get too off track, and that everything makes sense.

Concise. To the point.

Makes a lot of sense, although I've also seen pushback against "said bookism," the practice of replacing 'said' every possible chance. I've been doing that, and now I'm considering putting in just a few more 'saids' where it's not as necessary to convey an emotion. It's possible to go TOO far and try to imbue every sentence with freighted meanings, emanations, and penumbras...

Oh, gee, kinda like that. Sometimes a sentence needs to be a sentence. If you don't use SOME ordinary ones, the special ones don't stand out as well.

654044

Doesn't the first one appear to be dry and drag on a bit compared to the second?

No.

In fact, the second one falls prey to the same problem as Ink Blot. There's too much word variety, and it's distracting. Better yet would be something like this:

"I just don't know what went wrong," said Ink Blot, hanging his head.
"Well... You did use some words in your story that just made no sense," remarked Quill Tip.
"I used a thesaurus! All those words were synonyms to the ones I originally had," Ink Blot said.
"Oh, that explains it," Quill Tip said, rolling his eyes.
"And now my story is a laughing stalk among my fellow peers." Ink said, sighing heavily.

What about revered authors such as JK Rowling, who use adverbs rather than verbs to change the manner of speaking?

654044

Disagree entirely and utterly.

'Said' is an invisible word that the reader's eyes skip over. Very few things are more distracting than every character uttering, hissing, shouting, crying, voicing, remarking, spitting, commenting, replying, answering, questioning, querying, sobbing, laughing or Celestia forbid, ejaculating their dialogue. Same goes for adverbial tagging - adverbs themselves are usually sloppy writing, where the writer has not picked the correct word so they brute-force a wrong one. Same goes for dialogue. The speech itself should tell the reader how the words are spoken, bookisms and adverbial tagging should only be used in cases of ambiguity, where the tone of speech can be interpreted in very different ways. If your dialogue is so frequently ambiguous that you're adding adverbials and bookisms on a regular basis, then something is wrong with your dialogue.

654128

Genki Sudo can pull off triple spinning backfists in MMA and get knockouts from them. You can't.

An important aspect to mention is the idea of needlessly exuberant diction.
Needlessly exuberant diction is exactly as it sounds: your words are bigger than they should to be. Some authors believe that a story will sound better or more sophisticated if they cram every sentence with only the most lavish words they could find in the thesaurus. This contributes to Purple Prose, a mark of a(n amateur) writer who has no control over how they tell their story. While the inverse is definitely true as well, needlessly complicated prose is a flaw I see around here every so often.
Truth be told, the simpler your words are to tell your story, the better your reader thinks of the story (and the author as a result). You shouldn't be forced to write at a third grade level, but you shouldn't make your audience reach for a dictionary either. Ideally, you should look for words that convey what you want it to that a slightly-higher educated would have on their vocabulary; if you can't find a word to do that, consider finding another way to express that with another set of words.

However, I have to slightly disagree with you on the term, "said". Some literary schools of thought actually see "said" as a wholly valid term to convey speech, even moreso than some more sophisticated words. In an list of tips by Elmore Leonard, numbers three and four state that that the term "said"- and only "said"- should be used for this purpose; I've read many other articles that suggest something similar but more flexible.
When working with dialogue, it's okay to use said, and it's okay to use any other word with a similar meaning, but it's not okay to overuse either of them; it becomes a challenge with larger sections of dialogue where you've literally run out of unique words to use. The trick is to find ways of conveying who is saying what without constantly having to tag who said what with a qualifying verb, while still maintaining the story's flow and the reader's interest. There's a few ways to do this, such as adding a character's actions or omitting speech qualifiers once a speaking pattern has been established, and it's the author's job to see what method works best.

To demonstrate this, I've taken the above example and added my own changes to it.

Ink Blot hung his head. "I just don't know what went wrong," he said in defeat.
"Well..." Quill Tip remarked, "You did use some words in your story that just made no sense."
"I used a thesaurus!" the frustrated author said, throwing his hooves in the air. "All those words were synonyms to the ones I originally had."
Suddenly, everything clicked into place. Quill Tip took pity on his friend, but expressed his disappointment with a roll of his eyes, "Oh, that explains it,"
"And now my story is a laughing stalk among my fellow peers."
"Well, now you know better..."
Ink Blot nodded, letting out a heavy sigh before he went back to writing.

Not only do these methods afford authors greater flexibility in conveying the scene, but it also allows for greater productivity as well. No longer will you be forced to hunt down a synonym for "said", nor will you run the risk of redundancy or repetition. You have many tools to use with dialogue: it's just a matter of learning to use them.

654195
u w0t, m8?

I agree to what Chuckfinley said. If what your actor said does not sound like a statement, stating it in the dialogue attribution will only draw attention to that fact. If it, however, does sound like one, stating it is redundant.

But I do agree that a theasarus (well, for me it's a dictionary--owing to not being a native speaker) is a good tool, because, even if you know a more befitting word for the occasion, it does not necessarily pop into your mind right away. One should however refrain from using words one has not heard of before, for IMHO the nuances would-be synonyms distinguish from one another can hardly be conveyed without context.

654224
This is very helpful.