Vivid Verbs

Think about the effect you want to have on your reader. You create a mood by what you focus on i.e. dead flower heads in the killer’s garden. Strong vivid verbs are a must i.e. crack, straddle, slice, discard, shoots etc.

Show characters experiencing the external world and use specific examples. Instead of ‘it was very windy’, the information will be more vivid if you have the wind blow a leaf into a characters face. Not ‘He was fat’ but The mans shirt stretched across his belly. She could see the folds of his stomach. This is implicit. There is a picture here, an image.

Avoid passive verbs and tenses; was, got, make, went, were, is, are, am etc. He watched is more forceful than ‘he was watching’. He frowned is better than ‘he looked annoyed’. The dog barked is direct. Take out any ‘there was’ and ‘there are’. Adverbs (ly) can be made redundant if the verb chosen is accurate and powerful ‘she stopped suddenly’. Without the adverb the sentence is more abrupt she stopped. Don’t start sentences with as, then, just then, because. These tell rather than show!

Say Corgi not dog, Crocus not flower. Don’t allow this, that, these and those to stand alone. Check for quantifiers – words like often, very, some, many – replace these with something more accurate. Also replace ‘as if’ and ‘seemed’.