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Thursday, April 12, 2012

Better Verbs= Better Prose

Have you ever asked yourself, "why does my work sound so bad?" More than likely it's a couple of  problems. But as I was searching the net for someone to tell me why my books sounded so sucky, I found a huge hint. VERBS! My verbs were dulling my work. Specifically, the TO BE verb and mediocre verbs, MOVE, WALK, OPEN, SMILE, RAN.
Instead of using an adverb to describe a plain verb, use a stronger to improve your prose.
He quickly ran inside = He dashed inside
A smile was on her face = A smile stretched across her face.
The room was full of shoes = Shoes cluttered the room.
Sometimes sentences may need to be rearranged for a better vision.
All right! Now, back to editing!

4 comments:

  1. Hey this is interesting. And so true! The way you write can definitely help (or not) a story. Some people can write about bread and somehow make it interesting. (Not that bread isn't interesting ;))
    But your examples really underline that.

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    1. *GASP* The first person ever to comment on my blog!
      Sorry Honey, I'm gonna stalk you now.

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  2. I am not commenting, just telling you that there are Muslim writers out there (saw your question somewhere else).

    You can find me here

    www.writingfortruth.com

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    1. Thanks for taking the time to answer my question!

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