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Better Verbs


      Imagine a language with seventy-five ways to say the word wind, each based on the very way the wind moves, its rise and fall, its undulations. The “wind” that shudders the willow boughs, the “wind” that ripples the water, the “wind” that carries rain, the “wind” that rattles windows, and so on. On the other hand, a thesaurus of the English language might list a half dozen words for wind: gust, gale, blast, flurry, blow: plus the directions from which it comes: northeaster, northwester, southeaster, southwester, and so on. For those of us who write in English, lively verbs are one of the ways we can uplift our writing and sail it aloft over rooftops and rivers.

      Verbs are the combustible material of the language; they create the action, they move the writing. Verbs contain the energy of sentences.

      “Use better verbs!” came back the critique on one of my manuscripts. I reread it, embarrassed to realize how often I used the verb was. Once I noticed it, the word stuck out like the proverbial sore thumb. Was was everywhere, like a lawn infected with dandelions.

      Like was, another group of three letters that makes for bad verb use is ing, the gerund form of the verb that makes it passive. “I was sleeping.” “I was going to wake soon.” “I was snoring.” “I was drooling on my pillow, staining it.” Was I dreaming?

      Will someone wake these verbs up! Whack off their ings, and excite them into action.

      “At five in the afternoon, I would be writing.” Would creates a conditional tense, capturing the verb forever, like a tiny creature in amber, never allowing for change to take place. The state in which I would forever be: writing.

      But where to find better verbs, she moaned. This is where the crafting of the writing begins. Go ahead and write your practice piece, verbing as you will. Then as you reread, underline all the verbs; notice the words that show some spunk, lift heavy loads, block and tackle, tap-dance, and generally liven up your sentences; these are keepers. Next, notice all those boring, clichéd verbs the wases and the passive forms, the had hads and would bes. These are the ones you want to change. And you do it verb by verb.
  • Use your thesaurus and dictionary.
  • Use your imagination.
  • Try some exercises such as listing all the verbs that go with a certain activity - cooking or example, or gardening. Sewing. Swimming. Writing.
  • List all the jobs you’ve had and verbalize your activities.
  • List all the actions you’ve taken so far today.
  • Read really good writers and pay attention to their verb-crafting.
  • Instead of trying to think of better words, close your eyes and picture the image, then come up with words that describe the action.













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