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Wow, Noah, you disappear for forever just to give us [writers 👍🏻] an existential crisis… (may or may not be the words of @this-is-not-an-alien )

Replacements for look:

Glare, gaze, glance, gawk, peer, peek,

Thoughts on ‘said’ replacements: In a lot of books I’ve been reading recently, the authors have replaced said  with so many different words that I start to get irritated. It is especially annoying when they replace nearly every said  with something like ‘offered’ or ‘asserted’ or ‘replied’ or ‘noted’ or ‘commented.’ I personally try to do this rarely, and I never used any of the words listed above. I used things such as ‘growled’ ‘roared’ or ‘hissed,’ but seeing that ‘said’ is usually invisible to the reader, I prefer that in most cases. What are y’all’s thoughts?

I agree! I have also found that people don’t appreciate it when you use the word “spoketh” so don’t do that.

Facial Features: To what extent to y’all usually describe facial features? Any tips for doing so?

Ok, I actually have a legit and somewhat smart sounding answer for this. I personally don’t think you can have too much, but you can have too much at once. As long as it’s not an information overload at one time thing, I don’t see any issues. To start out with, I would just cover the basics and anything important (hair color, eye color, important features such as a scar, etc.) then as the story goes on throw in other stuff.

Parents: When having a character refer to their parent in introspection, do you use ‘his father’ or the father’s actually name? I tend to use both.

Same.

She said vs said she: I much prefer the former (the latter sounds like passive voice to me for some reason), but it also has a unique sound and sometimes I do like it. I noticed that older writing uses the latter much more often than newer writings, but what are y’all’s thoughts? Some of my cousins say they like a mix of both.

In my opinion, I think it would depend on the style of the book. If you have more of a classy or historical book, I think said she is the better choice whereas she said seems to fit better with contemporary books. I think this is more of the writer’s preference though, and yeah, both is great!

He gave a tight smile vs he smiled tightly: I tend to use the former due to the fact that I avoid adverbs, but which do y’all prefer? Does the former sound strange?

No, I think it sounds better

Chapter Names: Are these a thing of the past? I personally don’t use them, but I was just curious.

No, I use them. Maybe it’s because you’re “normal”

Inches, feet, meters, etc.. in medieval fiction: Do y’all use these terms in fantasy or use the more medieval sounding ‘pace’ or ‘span?’

Again, this is writers’ preference. If you want to have this in your medieval world, that’s your decision. To answer your question though, I don’t think they sound very medieval.

Voice Description: I have a habit of describing voice a lot (telling, I know), but just saying ‘said’ instead of ‘he said in a rough voice’ doesn’t carry the intended purpose. Thoughts?

Yeahhh… That does sound better but don’t overdo it.

Direct (italicized with I’s and me’s) vs indirect thought: I was recently watching a lecture by an incredibly famous author, and he says that he likes to use direct/italicized thought that used I’s and me’s to not only make sure the reader is grounded in the introspection, but also to add flavor. I tend to not use it, but now I’m uncertain. Thoughts?

Yeah, I do. It does add flavor in my opinion.

Hope this helps! Good to see you back!