Why verbs

Since one of my friends wrote about this, I am doing so too.

Why verbs?

Why not nouns? Why not prepositional phrases or fifteen consecutive conjunctions?

Because verbs …

Convey strong action

Duh. But yes. Also, importantly, this gives us a foundation off which to discuss verbs because if you don’t know this — or if you disagree — then the rest of this article won’t work for you.

In addition to conveying strong action, verbs …

Let you escalate action

“Jason walked. [a thing happened, and] he jogged. Then [whatever, and] he jogged. [More things, and] he ran. Then raced. Finally, he blazed past everyone and everything.”

versus

“Jason walked. [a thing happened, and] he walked faster. Then [whatever, and] he walked much faster. [More things, and] he decided to run. Then he increased his speed. Finally, he raised his speed by ten miles per hour and went past everyone and everything.”

Which paragraph escalates the action better?

And now that we’ve used verbs to escalate action, let’s

Convey strong lack of agency

“Jason walked. [a thing happened, and] he jogged. Then [whatever, and] he jogged. [More things, and] he ran. Then raced. Finally, he blazed past everyone and everything.

Then he got plowed into by an ATV.”

We just spent a paragraph building up Jason’s agency, only to then slaughter him. Had we not built Jason up so much, the reversal in the ATV plowing would have been less abrupt.

A character cannot plummet without first soaring. In using verbs to get Jason to soar, we positioned him to be able to plummet.

Speaking of plummeting and soaring, verbs can also …

Illuminate the lack of action in nouns

“Jason walked. [a thing happened, and] he jogged. Then [whatever, and] he jogged. [More things, and] he ran. Then raced. Finally, he blazed past everyone and everything.

Then he got plowed into by an ATV.

Stephanie had been near where Jason was before he started walking. She’d cast the occasional glance at him. After he got demolished, she offered at a step or two toward his path, then retreated to her seat.”

In the third paragraph, I used an intransitive verb (had been) for Stephanie, contrasted with Jason and his strong verb (walking), and then started noun-bombing to show Stephanie not acting: glance as a noun rather than verb, demolished (Jason), and step/path rather than stepped. Where I used verbs for Stephanie, they emphasized a limit: cast, offered, retreated. She protected herself lest she get ATVed.

Now, how did Stephanie know to limit her agency? Did she know an ATV was coming, or was she just lucky to have hung back? Verbs can help her…

Hide dishonesty

In a statement, Stephanie said, “I was distraught when that ATV mutilated my friend. He loved us, he adventured with us, he pushed us, and we will forever miss his engaging spirit and” whatever else. The statement’s verbs tell you that this person is deeply affected. Imagine something like else — something like this:

“I feel great sadness at the ending of my friend’s life. The ATV accident will long be remembered. Jason was often in pursuit of his passions, in adventure and dare, and his engaging spirit will”

Make you wonder what she’s hiding. Because people who are hiding something take longer to find a way of saying it that isn’t a lie or that doesn’t expose them. And since verbs communicate action — and people who are hiding something engaged in an incriminating action — they go all nouns all the time.

(Did Stephanie help kill Jason? You be the judge.)