Valiant, Victorious Verbs

A new contest is in the works. My publisher and I are working out the details but watch for it; it’s coming up. Hint: you might consider taking a snapshot of you or a friend or your pet reading one of my cozy mysteries.

“Your words paint a picture,” writers are told. “Use them wisely.”

Okay, I agree with that.

“Get rid of pesky adverbs,” we hear. “Use highly descriptive verbs.” What kind of verbs? Highly descriptive. Whoops! I used two adjectives. For shame.

Well, I for one, like adverbs and adjectives. Agreed, that they shouldn’t clutter up writing and nobody should ‘breathe quickly’ when she could be panting or ‘say softly’ when whispering would fit. But if you need an adverb or an adjective and no single word will suffice, well, grab it and use it.

Looking back at what I had written yesterday on Ned’s journey into Fright of the Silvery Moon, I was startled to see a bunch of pretty active verbs. In fact, they told much of the story.

Grumbled, frowned, groaned, screamed, crashed. Sprinted, stumbled, sprawled. Clamped, gasped, peered.

Hmm. Maybe I don’t need adverbs after all. I like words that don’t beat around the bush and are active and interesting.

I like to paint and I like to write. In painting, the colors have to be just right to show what’s going on and in writing, words, instead of colors, get the job done.

By the way, with Fright of the Silvery Moon on the writing easel, if you haven’t picked up a copy of Moonlight Can Be Murder, you might want to do that so you’ll be acquainted with Ned, Pat, Jackie and Cade. The first book will make the second more meaningful.

So, today, jump into Friday, ignore all roadblocks to reading, grab a cozy mystery, settle into a chair, journey into the realm of possibilities and prepare to be intrigued.