"except saying" is correct and usable in written English.
You can use it when you want to introduce an exception to what you have previously stated. For example: "I can't think of any way to make the situation better, except saying sorry."
The fact I'm not involved in any anti-regime activity except saying how shitty the films of [pro-Russia director] Nikita Mikhalkov are is no guarantee of safety.
She also refused to provide further details about the party's membership except saying indirectly that there were at least a dozen members.
Generally accepted by critics and academics as a love letter to Tony Ciccone or as an indictment, Madonna never divulged her inspiration behind "Oh Father", except saying that the song was about her father and a tribute to Simon & Garfunkel, her favorite band at that time.
With Bain Capital affirming his vulture cred, an income so huge he refused to reveal his tax returns, he ran on absolutely nothing except saying what we have now isn't working, even though it seemed to be working fine for him.
The book does not give a detailed account of the events on the New Jersey Turnpike, except saying that the jury "Convicted a woman with her hands up!" The book was published by Lawrence Hill & Company in the United States and Canada but the copyright is held by Zed Books Ltd. of London due to "Son of Sam" laws, which restrict who can receive profits from a book.
We lack a concrete explanation for this result, except saying that the error bars are generous enough to allow for such inconsistencies and that differences between observer scoring for continuous and binary could be due to possible unfamiliarity with the use of the continuous scale for Ki-67 (or counting tasks in general) despite our training process.
And there was nothing he could do except say, 'Anna!
Some wilderness advocates would put the area off limits except, say, to backpackers.
"They could do everything," Toibin writes, "except say out loud what it was they were thinking".
Still, it's hard to imagine any writer, except, say, Dostoevsky, writing two novels like "Wuthering Heights".
"Except," said Mr. Salter, 76, leaning over his desk as if to emphasize his message, "for making its schools better".
