At some point, we’ve got to take a class or read a book on grammar. The famous samurai Miyamoto Musashi once wrote that every Samurai must learn to properly polish your sword.
Words are your sword as a writer. Learning words and their functions – boring as it is – is essential.
Unfortunately, we often carry baggage from our school years. I’ve never had a good English teacher. Matter of fact, I’ve had precious few good teachers. And if I see another one of those “If you can read this thank a teacher” bumper stickers, I may well give them a piece of my mind – it makes assumptions that I could not read prior to school. And I’ve been reading since I was two.
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Verbs are action words. They show action. We all remember hearing that.
Verbs show action. That’s useful. Someone says your book is boring? It essentially means (among other things) that you chose weak verbs.
Essentially, what it boils down to is thesaurus and right choices. “Hit” is okay.” Collide is better. Smash is best.
Now, in a car crash, you can’t keep writing “smash”. You need to vary it to add “impact” “collide”, “wrench” “crush” and “Crunch.” Someone’s head hits the headrest on their seat. The implication now is that the “Hit” is of less impact than the “slam” of two cars hitting head on. Good thing too, because if your head SLAMMED into the head rest instead of HIT, you’d probably be dead.
Theses kind of words are called active verbs. Many novels are rejected solely because of a failure to use active verbs.
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If you want to write (verses just wanting a writer’s life style), these are the kinds of things you need to know. Words are your tools. You need to know how to effectively use them.
