 He walked slowly
265+ Forceful Verbs to Turn You
Into
Writing is a storytelling medium. Every
sentence is an opportunity to tell a part
of that story, elaborating on the plot,
characters, atmosphere — whatever.
This also means that every time the
author writes a sentence like, “Harry
opened the door,” they are missing out
on a key opportunity to tell us more.
What if Harry “jimmied the door,” or
“threw the door open”?  By using
forceful verbs, we get a better sense of
what’s happening without many extra
words.
Why should you use forceful verbs?
A lot of the time, it simply comes down
to using evocative verbs: doing words
that not only tell us what is happening
but how it is being done as well. But
wait! you say, isn’t that what adverbs
are for?
Adverbs: who needs them?
Adverbs, by definition, are modifiers
that writers can use to describe an
action:
 She ate voraciously
 They sleep lightly
The thing is, more often than not, you
can pick a forceful verb that makes the
adverb redundant:
 He sauntered
 She gobbled
 They dozed
Apart from simply being economical
with words and avoiding purple prose,
however, there are plenty of sound
reasons to choose stronger verbs.
Show, Don’t Tell
The granddaddy of writing aphorisms:
show, don’t tell. The principle behind
this is that it’s far more satisfying for
readers to infer what’s happening than
for every piece of information to be
spoon-fed to them. But perhaps more
importantly, “showing” keeps a reader
under the spell of the story, while
“telling” reminds them that there’s a
narrator at work, spinning a tale.
By choosing a solid, evocative verb, you mongrel. Instead of rolling out boring
deliver so much more information to the words like ‘walk’ and ‘run,’ give your
reader while remaining under the radar. characters an early birthday present and
spice up their motions with these verbs.

Maintain immediacy and build pace

 Advance
Another reason for maintaining an  Bolt
arsenal of forceful verbs is to preserve  Bound
and build momentum. By economizing  Burst
on words and packing each action with  Bus
more meaning, you can up the pace of a  Bust
passage. Strip out ALL the adverbs and  Bustle
adjectives and deploy some well-chosen  Charge
verbs, and watch how your writing hums  Clamber
along like a cigarette boat off the coast of  Climb
Miami.  Crash
 Dash
This is by no means an exhaustive list.
 Depart
But by browsing through these hand-
 Deviate
picked verbs, you should start to get an
 Escort
idea of how many words are already in
 Explore
your vocabulary — and how you can
 Extend
employ them in your writing.
 Fly
 Gravitate
Moving verbs  Hobble
 Hurry
 How can a phrase with so many letters
 Journey
of the alphabet also be so dull? It’s a
 Launch
surprise that the fox didn’t fall asleep
 Lead
half-way through that sentence and
 Leap
come crashing down on the lethargic
 Lurch
 Mount
Handling verbs
 Plunge
"She gripped the colored pencil" (Photo
 Race
by Neven Krcmarek)
 Retreat
Don’t have your protagonist ‘hold’
 Revolve
something or ‘put’ it down — that tells
 Rise
us nothing about the character, object,
 Rush
or the action. Here are some sweet
 Saunter
alternate verbs that will pull readers into
 Scamper
your scene about a guy with a thing in
 Skip
his hand:
 Skulk
 Slide  Amend
 Slink  Capture
 Slip  Catch
 Sneak  Clasp
 Soar  Clutch
 Spurt  Coddle
 Storm  Dangle
 Stroll  Deposit
 Stumble  Drag
 Surge  Drop
 Tail  Ensnare
 Toddle  Envelop
 Travel  Expose
 Trip  Extract
 Trudge  Fling
 Usher  Fondle
 Weave  Fuse
 Wind  Grasp
 Grip
 Grope
Speaking verbs
 Intertwine
"Which way to the library?" shrieked the
 Peck
dinosaur. (Photo by Umanoide)
 Pilot
Buckle up: you’re about to get some
 Place
advice that sounds contradictory, but
 Pluck
really isn’t. The widely held rule about
 Prune
writing dialogue is that you shouldn’t
 Remove
use dialogue tags more exotic than “he
 Scrape
said,” and “she said.” And that is true. If
 Scratch
you tell your readers that Doctor Watson
 Scrawl
ejaculated in surprise, you’re more likely
 Seize
to distract your readers than if you
 Serve
wrote: “My word, Holmes. What a
 Snag
shock!” Watson said.
 Sprinkle
 Steal But, while keeping your dialogue tags
 Steer unobtrusive, you don’t have to describe
 Strain all acts of speech as “saying.” Here are
 Stretch some strong alternate verbs for
 Swipe characters who are flapping their lips:
 Trim
 Uncover  Advise

 Unpick  Amplify

 Untangle  Assert

 Wield  Bellow

 Wrench  Blab

 Wrest  Brief

 Wring  Broadcast

 Yank  Bubble
 Command
 Croon
  Crow
Attacking verbs
 Gab
Mac blasted his opponent with an
 Garble
overhand punch. (Photo by Hermes
 Gloat
Rivera)
 Groan
Verbs maketh the action, and nowhere is
 Growl
this truer than in action scenes. There’s
 Gush
no easier way to ruin a fight than by
 Impart
using the first, boring words that come
 Instruct
to mind.
 Mimic
 Moan Arnold hit the other robot powerfully,
 Muse who then used his .44 Magnum to shoot
 Notify him back.
 Recite
Boo. Hiss. Snooze. In action scenes, your
 Report
job as a writer is to excite the reader —
 Roar
and for that, you need to quicken the
 Shriek
pace of your writing. No time for
 Snarl
adjectives or adverbs that lengthen
 Snipe
sentences. Pick verbs that evoke the
 Tattle
movements, speed, and emotions that
 Wail
you’re looking for. Start here:
However, if you are looking to beef up
 Attack
your arsenal of dialogue tags even more,
 Bash
why not download our free list of 150
 Batter
other words for ‘said’?
 Besiege
 Blast
 Bombard
 Chip
 
 Chop
 Cleave
Sensing verbs
 Collide
In films, a lot of storytelling is done
 Crush
through the close up: a wide shot of a
 Demolish
rotting corpse cutting to a close-up of a
 Dismantle
grizzled detective squinting his eyes tells
 Eradicate
us that he’s closely scrutinizing the body
 Fight
and wondering what happened.
 Grapple
However, that’s Cinema — and books
 Hack
are not a visual medium. Luckily, a well-
 Lash
deployed verb in context can imply how
 Quash
a character is reacting to something
 Raid
they’re witnessing. So take a peek at
 Ravage
these:
 Rip
 Scorch
 Behold
 Shatter
 Detect
 Shock
 Discern
 Slash
 Discover
 Smash
 Eavesdrop
 Smite
 Eyeball
 Strike
 Gawk
 Struggle
 Gaze
 Tussle
 Glare
 Wallop
 Glimpse
 Wreck
 Heed
 Wrest
 Inspect
 Wrestle
 Locate
 Zap
 Notice
 Zing
 Peek
 Peer
  Perceive  Position
 Picture  Rest
 Pinpoint  Settle
 Probe  Slump
 Realize
 Regard
Eating verbs
 Scan
 Scrutinize The Duchess of Devonshire doesn’t dine

 Spy in the same way that a soldier in the

 Survey trenches scoops from his mess tin. Pick

the right verbs and you'll have your
readers (and characters) eating out of
Standing verbs your hand.
 She hovered near the entrance. (Photo
 Chew
by Brooke Cagle)
 Devour
Sure, someone might be standing on the  Gobble
street — but what else are they doing?  Gorge
You don’t have to tell us that they’re  Inhale
playing on the phone or thinking about  Munch
their vacation, but you can give us a  Pick
better picture of how they’re behaving  Slurp
with one of these actions:  Swallow
 Wolf
 Hold
 Hover
 Lean Transforming verbs
 Lurk Describing what humans are doing is a
 Park lot easier than trying to communicate
 Plant something that people have never seen
 Plop before. How do you paint a word-picture
of a cute alien who is transmogrifying  Shrivel
into a deadly monster? And how can you  Snowball
explain to people what it’s like being on  Supersize
the deck of an aircraft carrier, with its  Swell
various moving parts? If you’re not  Throb
already shouting, “Verbs! Verbs!” then  Transfigure
you haven’t been paying attention.  Transform

 Absorb
 Alter Emoting verbs
 Atomize So, it had come to this: paying his bills
 Balloon by crying for a stock photo. (Photo
 Demolish by Tom Pumford)
 Distend “Show, don’t tell” was made for writing
 Enlarge about emotion. If ever you feel the urge
 Erase to write, “He was very sad,” then please
 Expand power down your computer and take a
 Explode nap. Nobody needs to read that. Instead
 Heighten of telling us how a character feels, show
 Intensify them doing something that reveals this
 Magnify emotion. Why not start by checking out
 Melt these evocative verbs:
 Modify
 Beam
 Multiply
 Brood
 Mushroom
 Covet
 Mutate
 Crave
 Puff
 Faze
 Refine
 Fret
 Revitalize
 Frown
 Revolutionize
 Glower
 Rust
  Howl opportunity. Make every word count,
 Scowl and give your readers something they
 Sob can get lost in.
 Stare
 Swoon
 Wail
 Yowl

Shining verbs

“Don’t tell me the moon is shining,”

Chekhov once wrote. “Show me the glint
of the light on broken glass.” As a tip of
the great Russian dramatist and short
story maestro, we’ll finish up with some
more alternatives for shining.

 Flicker
 Gleam
 Glisten
 Glitter
 Glow
 Shimmer
 Sizzle
 Sparkle
 Twinkle

Well-chosen, powerful verbs are the

secret weapons in a wordsmith’s holster.
Always remember that using a bog-
standard, overused verb is a missed