Remember to review your verbs.
While I’ve worked and taught with several bestselling writers, I learned one of my best tips from someone who wrote picture books for children.
She advised writers to print out their first two pages and circle every verb. “You don’t want,” she said, “writing that’s isy and wasy.”
Thirty years later, I’m still seeking and correcting wasy writing – my own and others’.
Consider a few examples from a “must-print” article in the magazine I edit.
Before: “It was a pleasant drive.”
After: “We enjoyed a pleasant drive.”
Before: “It was fun to walk down the street and feel like you were in a different time …”
After: “I liked walking down the street and feeling like we were in a different time …”
Before: “I was like going to a Ford dealership back in the day.”
After: “It felt like going to a Ford dealership back in the day.”
Simple, easy changes. But over the length of an article, a chapter, or an entire book, they make for more dynamic writing.
