{"id":11551,"date":"2025-08-19T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=11551"},"modified":"2026-01-04T13:13:41","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T18:13:41","slug":"every-words-a-choice-part-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=11551","title":{"rendered":"Every Word\u2019s a Choice \u2013 Part 4 — Verbs (Still) Do the Heavy Lifting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n


Here\u2019s more on how choosing strong verbs can bring your story alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Does your character merely walk into a room? How<\/em> does he walk in? You can make his style of entry specific and more visual by adding an adverb:
            He walked slowly<\/em> into the room.
            She walked briskly<\/em> into the room.
Better yet, choose a<\/strong> strong verb<\/strong>\u2014one that works harder for you.
            He can stroll, sashay, amble, stagger, or trudge into the room.
            She can stride, race, march, skip, or strut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Characters can hike, parade, saunter, shuffle, step, skip, wander, lope, meander, plod, shamble, hustle, and on and on. It all depends on who<\/strong> they are and what they may expect to find in that room.<\/strong> A teenage boy about to be called to task for denting the family Buick will enter the living room where his father waits very differently than would his sister who just won the school spelling bee. Personally, I\u2019d like to see a character who scuttles into a room, but I haven\u2019t yet written about a scuttler.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Try this<\/strong>
Think about how you might replace the pedestrian verbs in the following sentences with something more interesting. In some cases, tighten up the wording or remove unnecessary filter verbs (like \u201csee,\u201d \u201chear,\u201d etc.). These sentences aren\u2019t wrong<\/em>. They\u2019re just not as interesting as they might be. And a whole book of not very interesting sentences ends up being a not very interesting book. Here\u2019s an example of verb replacement: The cat was<\/strong> in a square of bright light<\/em>. You might replace \u201cwas\u201d with \u201csunned.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your turn:<\/strong>
He said that was great. (Hint: take out a couple of words.)
That bullet was much too close for comfort.
From the living room, I heard a great crash.
My glasses, broken in the fall, were in my jacket pocket.
I saw she was much too sunburned to have spent the day at the library.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at a few of the verbs in our song (discussed in Part 2 of this series and linked again here<\/a>). Right away, in the first line you\u2019ll see a \u201cwas,\u201d but there\u2019s also a \u201ccarried,\u201d which is an action you can picture <\/em>and a \u201clived,\u201d (a verb full of life). Strong and evocative verbs in the song include: \u201cstopped rambling,\u201d \u201cmarched me away,\u201d \u201csailed off\u201d\u2014sounds like a lark, doesn\u2019t it?\u2014\u201cstained,\u201d \u201cbutchered,\u201d \u201ccorpses piled\u201d (no burial niceties). The Australian soldiers \u201csailed off\u201d but, once wounded, were \u201cshipped\u201d back home, like cargo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One thought to bear in mind. Words have their usual, literal meaning, but they also carry secondary meanings. \u201cStained\u201d is a good example. You can understand this verb as merely discoloration of the sand and water, but it also carries\u2014maybe even subconsciously\u2014the implication of shame or something dishonorable: \u201ca stain on one\u2019s reputation.\u201d A stain is almost never a good thing. \u201cButchered\u201d is another example. While it could just mean killed, in this context, it conjures up another, more powerful meaning\u2014that of \u201cindiscriminate slaughter.\u201d Especially the choice of \u201clike lambs<\/em> to the slaughter,\u201d with lambs being a symbol of \u201cinnocence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, of course, readers bring their own context to a story and the words in it. While we all can be moved by the \u201clambs to the slaughter\u201d image, the mother or brother of someone slain in war would hear it quite differently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like everyone, I have a few writing pet peeves, nails on the blackboard kind-of-things. They include the verbs \u201cget\u201d and \u201cgot.\u201d I eliminate them as relentlessly as I chase down a wasp in the house. They\u2019re perfectly fine words, but they mean so many things! Scroll down the list of definitions [https:\/\/www.dictionary.com\/browse\/get<\/a>], and see for yourself. When you find one of them in your story, it\u2019s an opportunity to identify a more precise verb!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next Tuesday: Adjective and Adverbs
Part 1:<\/strong> Introduction to \u201c Every Word\u2019s a Choice\u201d\u2014finding the best words to tell your story. The series is based on a talk I recently gave at a writers\u2019 conference. <\/em>https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=11484<\/a>
Part 2:<\/strong>  Using effective nouns to establish a relationship with readers.<\/em> https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=11501<\/a>
Part 3:<\/strong> A strong verb can do a lot for your story.<\/em> https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=11536<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here\u2019s more on how choosing strong verbs can bring your story alive. Does your character merely walk into a room? How does he walk in? You can make his style of entry specific and more visual by adding an adverb:            … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[174,51,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-first-draft-blog","category-words","category-writing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-30j","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11551"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11551\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11608,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11551\/revisions\/11608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}