Are Your Verbs Lacking Vavoom?
By: Tilted Writer Musings
Tags: Creative Writing, Novel Writing, Writing Life, Creative Process, Fiction

Listen up, writers, it’s time to add some sass to your storytelling. Some fire to your fiction. Some nom-nom to your nonfiction (yeah, I know…stretcccchhhhing). Some risqué to your romance.

I have just the thing you need!

You might be thinking, ‘OMG did I win a retreat to the rain forests of Costa Rica where I can meditate in ancient volcanic mud baths and contemplate the purpose of my work?’ Not at all.

It’s Verbs. Straight-Up Verbs.

Think back to the glory days of diagramming sentences and learning parts of speech and memorizing the spelling of big words we didn’t understand. (Pretty sure they don’t do that in school anymore.) Most of us were sporting silver metal braces, pants with knee patches, Kangaroos tennis shoes with zippers, and a lot of acne (so much acne). In middle school, as in ALL of middle school, my favorite wardrobe item was an oversized Betty Boop t-shirt that perfectly complemented my gigantic eyeglasses. With this look firmly cemented, I eagerly absorbed the knowledge that was imparted by our teachers. (Nerd!)

Let me clarify. There were maybe three of us who liked all of that. The rest of ‘em? We’ll just say they did not master the preposition song.

Fast-Forward

Guess who’s having a good time now? The middle-school geek squad that owned every spelling bee and sentence diagramming contest like the mob owns Brooklyn, that’s who. Why? Because we learned All. The. Rules. We sat through all the classes, memorized all the poems, made up pneumonic devices to help us remember everything, and ever-so-geekily chiseled all of that information into our brains so that in our adult lives we could cut loose and BREAK ALL THE RULES!

When Did Writing Get Boring??

Yeah, I put a second question mark there on purpose. I might go back and put a third one. I haven’t decided. Or maybe I’ll change one to an exclam. (In case you’re interested, the form of punctuation utilizing the exclamation point and question mark together has been named the ‘interrogation point’ or ‘interro.’ See, once a nerd, always a nerd.)

Since our early days in school, most of us have been conditioned to write in a muy, muy vanilla, blah-ditty-blah style that keeps things neat, easy-to-absorb, and just barely manages to elevate our blood pressure. (If we writers can’t stay conscious while creating it, imagine how readers feel!)

What If…

What if writers ditched the term-paper personality our teachers had to teach and adopted just a smidge of the rebelliousness we once saw in a great-grandma who scandalously danced on a bar top in the ‘40s? What would happen if we just went all willy-nilly with our words? Would someone call a Code Red? Would the Grammar Police descend and make our writing spontaneously combust? Here’s exactly what would happen. 1) We’d want to write more of that because it’s fun, and 2) Readers would want to read more of the aforementioned fun writing.

Take a Minute (Or Lots of Them)

Your book will be out there forever. (Pretty cool, right?) It’s worth taking a moment to make sure you’ve chosen the exact words to express what you’re trying to say — and how you want your reader to feel.

Ready to Get Chill With Your Chatter?

(Please don’t tell my kids I said that.)

Here are just a couple examples of the plainest verbs around (sometimes we have to use them) and examples of some super-vivacious alternatives. Try adding siracha instead of ketchup when you have the chance and see how a little spice can heat things up:

Look > Stare, Gaze, Glare, Squint, Glower

There’s a completely different vibe in the two sentences below:

Ana’s teacher looked at her.

vs.

Ana’s teacher glowered at her.

Find > Stumble (on/onto), Steal, Unearth, Encounter, Locate

And how about this:

Bob found the body.

vs.

Bob unearthed the body.

Those are just a couple of examples, but they illustrate the point that it’s worth exploring the difference one or two small tweaks can make to your writing. Give it a try!

Elephant in the Room

Let’s talk about a sticky topic. It’s time to face down the word “said,” specifically when it comes to attributing dialogue. There are a couple of schools of thought on this one, so you’re going to have to do what feels right for you.

It basically comes down to this: The key is to strike a natural balance when writing dialogue, so too much of any one thing is going to become cumbersome and distracting to the reader. As an author, you’re looking for balance and flow in your language, and to achieve that, you have to use a variety of grammatical structures and elements.

Thought 1: Always use “said,” when attributing dialogue.

Why? The reasoning behind this school of thought is that readers start to skim over the word “said,” much like a punctuation mark, thereby allowing for a smoother ride, if you will — a smoother read of the story. Writers can avoid causing confusion and frustration by sticking with a word readers can easily absorb and skim. Using a simple word like “said” eliminates clutter and keeps readers from focusing so much on the mechanics of your writing.

Danger Zone: There are a couple of problems with sticking solely to “said” to attribute dialogue. Aside from the obvious that it’s restricting, it also tempts writers to supplement the word with unnecessary adverbs. (This will quickly throw you into telling, not showing, which inhibits the reader and keeps them from interpreting emotions and actions in the story.) For example:

“Let’s go,” she said breathlessly.

A repetitive use of adverbs can get just as distracting, so tread lightly here.

Thought 2: Branch out and use descriptive verbs to attribute dialogue.

Why? With varied and descriptive verbs, authors can add excitement to their writing. Using the same verb to attribute dialogue can get repetitive and distracting to the reader, especially if all or most attributions are formatted in the same way. The word ‘said’ simply isn’t as descriptive as other verbs, so writers have to decide when to use it and when to spice things up.

Danger Zone: When you open up your writing to powerful verbs, be sure you’re not turning yourself into a human thesaurus. No one wants to read that! It’s just as distracting as a repetitive word. Let your writing flow and use words that feel natural to the dialogue you’re creating. A good rule of thumb is if you have to look up a word, it’s not the right word and it will feel forced. How fun is this to read:

“I didn’t like that class,” Daniel opined.

“I know what you mean,” Sarah vociferated. “I can’t believe she assigned us homework!”

“I’m going to be up until midnight,” Daniel commiserated.

“We’re definitely going to have to postpone our plans to go on that hike,” bemoaned Sarah.

Josh lamented, “Yeah, I think you’re probably right.”

Seriously?! After five lines, I need coffee, wine, or a nap (potentially ALL of them). The above is an example of why the super-staunch “only use ‘said’” enthusiasts so firmly stand behind their belief. Because if they didn’t tell us NOT to use a whopper of a verb for every single dialogue attribution, we’d have verb-abusing writers taking over the world.

That said, what’s the solution? One word. Here’s the secret sauce.

Balance.

Overdo it one way, you sound repetitive. Overdo it the other way, you sound ridiculously addicted to thesaurus.com.

The solution is to listen to the words you’re putting on to the screen. Read them out loud. Do they seem natural? Do they flow? If they feel stilted, jerky, repetitive, or “extra,” take a step back and figure out what’s what’s not working.

The name of the game is BALANCE.

Balance is the magic that will power up your plotlines and rev up the verbs that need to deliver a little extra impact.

It’s time to kick boring to the curb. Can you still wear the Betty Boop t-shirt and Kangaroos tennies? Sure! I think now that look is called ‘vintage’ or ‘ironic.’ But secretly, we call still call it ‘cool.’

Now, get outta here. Go write something. And make sure it’s balanced!