| BAD | GOOD |
|---|---|
| “I want you to leave,” she said angrily. | “Get out!” she shouted. |
| He jerkily got into his sporty little car. | He stumbled into his Corvette. |
Can you see the difference? If you can't, then trust me. The sentences on the right are much stronger because of the verbs "shouted" and "stumbled" (also because of the more self-explanatory dialogue and the more specific "Corvette").
I've found a thesaurus to be helpful for this, but not helpful enough. Instead, I keep three text files in my writing directory:
said.txt, looked.txt, and walked.txt, filled with words to use instead of these common verbs. Today I'm sharing them online.This is by no means comprehensive, and I welcome suggestions for addition. I'm sure most of you will enjoy suggesting, actually.
| said | looked | walked |
|---|---|---|
| barked begged bellowed blared bleated blurted cackled chortled coaxed cooed coughed declared demanded echoed exclaimed expounded gasped goaded groaned hacked haggled harped hissed hooted hummed jabbered jeered jested joked moaned mused noted panted pleaded pondered posited pronounced protested purred queried questioned rasped repeated sang screamed shouted sneered sneezed snickered sniffed soothed spat spewed spumed stammered stated stuttered threatened tried trilled trumpeted uttered waffled wailed wavered whined whimpered whispered worried yelled | admired analyzed attended beheld considered contemplated examined eyed eyeballed flashed focused gaped gawked gazed glanced glowered goggled heeded inspected lamped marked minded noted noticed observed ogled peeked peeped peered pored over read regarded scanned scouted scrutinized saw spotted spied stared studied surveyed tended turned viewed watched examined | advanced ambled ambulated ankled cantered dove filed footed it frolicked went hiked hoofed it locomoted lumbered lurched marched meandered paced padded paraded patroled perambulated pitter-pattered plodded pranced promenaded raced roamed roved ran sauntered scuffed shambled shuffled slogged stalked stepped strided strolled strutted stumbled stumped toddled toured traipsed tramped traversed treaded trekked tromped trooped trudged wandered |
Excellent advice. The only thing I would add to that is to use the said column sparingly. They say (dunno who said it, but apparently it's true) that the ‘he said/she said’ speech tags are largely invisible to the reader.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the Scribe - be very careful and deliberate with the "said" substitutions. Likewise, you can really go overboard with some of the other synonyms. Like "ambulate" - yes, you can use that word for "walk". But almost all of the time, you shouldn't. Unless you're writing The Book of the New Sun, or Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (or some other book where the elaborate style is integral to the book) the use of a word like "ambulate" will stick out and distract from the actual purpose of the text.
ReplyDeleteThis is coming from a reader's, not a writer's, perspective. You know, 'cause I'm not a writer...
How did I not know until now that you write?
ReplyDeleteAnd blog?
well cool.
Off to check the other one now :)
Scribe & Matt: I agree about 'said'. Really, it's easy to overuse any of these. In general, the dialogue should speak for itself, but sometimes a strong tag makes it better. Everything in moderation.
ReplyDeleteCarrien: I didn't know you blogged either until a week or so ago. Then I find this blog with like years of archives (and you post a lot more often than I do!). So, fair enough, I guess.