Today’s writing tip is brief because after hauling dirt, planting veggies and flowers and pulling weeds, I can barely move. Weekend warrior, you say? How about active verb crusader? When you draft your scenes, writers, do you “see” the actors, the setting and the action? Of course you do. The tricky part is to get the reader to see the same stuff you do. If you rely on general verbs, you can’t blame the reader for imagining a scene very differently than you intended. Use active, specific verbs. The crusader of active verbs needs to go lie down now.

Writing Tip for Today: Convert passive language (to be verbs) into active language. Do a global computer search for verbs such as look, see, put, move, talk, walk. “See” the scene. Does your actor stumble, stride, amble or tear through a scene? When he/she looks, is it a glare, a squint, a gaze? Using specific verbs helps your reader imagine the same scene you created in your head.