Not long ago, there were commercials encouraging children to turn off the television and go outside and do something. They even used a popular cartoon to help them out at one point. The tagline for the commercials was: Verb- It’s what you do. Now when I ask my writing students to define “verb”, some of them respond with that tagline.
The campaign was all well and good. Add more verbs to your day and become more active. But not all verbs are created equal. You can sit and watch television. You’re doing something. You can just be. That’s also doing something. You’re not doing anything active, but you’re still adding verbs to your day.
So, how can you add better verbs into your day, or more importantly into your writing? Cathy Moore has a great interactive slide show in choosing more engaging verbs. They tend to be the ones that describe a movement rather than just an action. It’s rather clever, and a great reminder for those who are writing.
When you write, you’re painting a picture. Verbs that describe an active movement will add more to that picture that ones that just allow things to be. Stronger writing is active. Add more active verbs into your writing and your day, and see just how interesting things become.
