Verbs are every writer’s friend. Without action, there is no story. Too often, writers, particularly beginners, tend to spend too much time over creative uses for adjectives rather than paint the complete picture by giving their characters action and reaction. Although describing scene is important, (my next prompt will deal with this subject) we need to remember that the main thing keeping your reader interested in getting to the last page is wanting to find out what is going to happen next.
So, here goes. Write a scene. Give your characters movement and dialogue, but cross out every adjective until you can give the reader an accurate impression of what is going on without the use of descriptive words. It’s harder than you think, but have a go.
Writing Prompt: Keep Moving
adverbs are the worst. “so and so did something _____ly” is usually one of the worst narrative devices you can use. Show it, don’t tell. good points.
That’s so true.
I’ve been helping in a contemporary literature web site recently and this is really one of the major problems of a huge number of the writers there.
Hopefully more people happen to read this post!