Verbs are a vital part of the writer’s arsenal.  In fact, you can’t tell a story without them.  Todlers learning to talk have a natural affinity for verbs.  If you listen to a two or three year old speak, you will hear simple sentences containing an identifiable subject and a verb.  Those verbs, I might add, are quite active.  Think about the child who is telling you about something traumatic in their world.  “Doggie bite!”  There is no doubt what that little one is communicating.

As we get older, our sentence constructions get more complex and we add in those words to help sentences make better sense, especially to our ear.  Instead of hearing something like above, we may hear something along the lines of, “The black labrador has a problem with strangers. He tried to bite my foot.” 

Those additions, though, may seduce us into thinking we have an active verb driven story.  The above example isn’t very engaging. As writers you should look to tighten your work, engage your reader, and remove passive writing.  Frequently, one of the ways to make your sentence more action driven is to substitute the linking verb used with a verb depicting action.  Now the sentence might read, “The big, black lab ravaged my foot.” (Remember, these are off-the-cuff!)

How many linking verbs can you replace in a work to make your writing more vivid?  Plenty.  Take this tiny example.  She was depressed.  Was is a linking verb.  It shows depressed is related to she.  How can you replace was?  The blues hit her hard.  Now was has been converted into a verb of action and makes for a more interesting sentence.

Common linking verbs include: is, are, was, were, am, be, been, have, had, seem, felt, and a host more.  You can find lists in middle school, English grammar text books.

There are sentences you need to convey that must have a linking verb or a verb phrase to express the idea you want to get across.  Just beware, there may be a better way of saying writing the same idea that will be of more interest to your reader and will set your writing apart from the scores of others who haven’t conquered a passive voice.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008 at 3:13 pm and is filed under Tips and Tricks, Editors Desk, Writer News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.