Children love action stories. The best way to pull a young reader into your story is to use power verbs with the active voice and your story will come alive. Active voice is when the subject is doing the action. “Mike drove the car into a ditch.”
In college I learned to use the wonderful heavy, intellectual passive voice. I loved to write out the “where to’s”, “moreover’s”, “in as much as’s”, “to be’s” and so on. Very dry but very impressive with the sound of authority. However, these particular passive words are not good choices for a children’s story if you want to grab their attention.
Sometimes it is necessary and OK to use boring verbs because they get the job done quickly but they should be only about 5% of your writing and be spread through out the story. Do not concentrate them all in one chapter or paragraph.
When you are writing your next article or story and are stumped, check out the Power Verb list. Feel free to print out this post and place it near your computer. Just for fun see how many can be used as a sentence. For instance Act! Choose! Drive!
Here Are Your 104 Power Verbs To Read Out Loud
Abolish, Accelerate, Achieve, Act, Adopt, Align, Anticipate, Apply, Assess, Avoid,
Boost, Break, Bridge, Build, Burn, Capture, Change, Choose, Clarify, Clobber, Confront, Connect, Conquer, Convert, Create,
Decide, Define, Defuse, Deliver, Deploy, Design, Develop, Diagnose, Discover, Drive
Eliminate, Ensure, Establish, Evaluate, Exploit, Explore, Filter, Finalize, Find, Focus, Foresee
Gain, Gather, Generate, Grasp, Identify, Ignite, Implement, Improve, Increase, Innovate, Inspire, Intensify
Lead, Learn, Leverage, Manage, Master, Maximize, Measure, Mobilize, Motivate, Overcome, Penetrate, Persuade, Plan, Position, Prepare, Prevent, Profit,
Raise, Reconsider, Reduce, Refresh, Replace, Resist, Respond, Retain,
Save, Scan, Shatter, Shave-off, Sidestep, Simplify, Slash, Solve, Stimulate, Stop, Stretch, Succeed, Supplement
Take, Transfer, Transform, Understand, Unleash, Unravel, Use, Win.
“Words are, of course, the most powerful
drug used by mankind.”
~ Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936), English author
In college I learned to use the wonderful heavy, intellectual passive voice. I loved to write out the “where to’s”, “moreover’s”, “in as much as’s”, “to be’s” and so on. Very dry but very impressive with the sound of authority. However, these particular passive words are not good choices for a children’s story if you want to grab their attention.
Sometimes it is necessary and OK to use boring verbs because they get the job done quickly but they should be only about 5% of your writing and be spread through out the story. Do not concentrate them all in one chapter or paragraph.
When you are writing your next article or story and are stumped, check out the Power Verb list. Feel free to print out this post and place it near your computer. Just for fun see how many can be used as a sentence. For instance Act! Choose! Drive!
Here Are Your 104 Power Verbs To Read Out Loud
Abolish, Accelerate, Achieve, Act, Adopt, Align, Anticipate, Apply, Assess, Avoid,
Boost, Break, Bridge, Build, Burn, Capture, Change, Choose, Clarify, Clobber, Confront, Connect, Conquer, Convert, Create,
Decide, Define, Defuse, Deliver, Deploy, Design, Develop, Diagnose, Discover, Drive
Eliminate, Ensure, Establish, Evaluate, Exploit, Explore, Filter, Finalize, Find, Focus, Foresee
Gain, Gather, Generate, Grasp, Identify, Ignite, Implement, Improve, Increase, Innovate, Inspire, Intensify
Lead, Learn, Leverage, Manage, Master, Maximize, Measure, Mobilize, Motivate, Overcome, Penetrate, Persuade, Plan, Position, Prepare, Prevent, Profit,
Raise, Reconsider, Reduce, Refresh, Replace, Resist, Respond, Retain,
Save, Scan, Shatter, Shave-off, Sidestep, Simplify, Slash, Solve, Stimulate, Stop, Stretch, Succeed, Supplement
Take, Transfer, Transform, Understand, Unleash, Unravel, Use, Win.
“Words are, of course, the most powerful
drug used by mankind.”
~ Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936), English author
Write it down,
Carma
