How to use verbs to boost your descriptions

Verbs are action words. They show when something happened and change depending on how many people or things are involved in the action.

He climbed Denali in 1913.

They are coming over today.

I am attempting Aconcagua this year.

Though verbs are called action words, some verbs can have the opposite effect: they can flatten your writing and drain all the action from a scene. The culprits are often the “to be” verbs:

• be
• is
• am
• are
• being
• was
• were
• been.

Removing these flat verbs is a quick way to improve your writing, so let’s look at some examples, then jazz them up with stronger, more interesting verbs.

The soup was tasty.

The soup tasted of caramelised onions and pumpkin.

The rock was rough.

Rough rock scratched at hands and clothes.

The mountain is tall and steep.

The mountain looms above, steep and forbidding.

Changing the verb transforms these sentences from flat to interesting. Instead of being told that the soup was tasty, we can now imagine the flavour. We can feel the roughness of the rock. We can sense the writer’s anticipation of the mountain.

Strong verbs bring life and depth to your writing. Search your manuscript for those flat verbs (particularly was, were, is, are) and see if you can replace them with stronger verbs.

Finally, if you need help searching out those weak verbs and strengthening your writing, then contact me so we can start a conversation.