1,000 Strong Verbs for Fiction Writers

1,000 Strong Verbs for Fiction Writers by Valerie Howard is exactly what its title says and nothing more: a list of a thousand vigorous verbs, packaged as a slim booklet, meant to help a writer replace weak, flabby verbs during self-editing. It’s a tool, not a book in any real sense, and it’s to be judged as a tool, by whether it does its narrow job and whether that job is worth a purchase.

The underlying principle is sound and is the best thing about the product. Strong, specific verbs are one of the fastest ways to improve prose; replacing a weak verb propped up by an adverb with a single precise verb tightens a sentence and sharpens an image. Howard is right about the problem this booklet addresses.

What does Valerie Howard’s book of vigorous verbs actually contain?

The content is a categorized list of a thousand verbs, organized to help a writer find a stronger alternative to a tired choice. There’s minimal instruction; the value proposition is the list itself, a quick-reference brainstorming aid for the editing stage. Open it when you’ve written walked or looked or said for the tenth time and want a jolt toward something more vivid. As a cure for verb monotony in a self-editing pass, it can do that small job.

The honest problem

Here’s the catch that keeps it near the bottom of the scale. A thesaurus does the same job for free, and does it better, because it offers alternatives in context with shades of meaning instead of a flat list. More importantly, the right strong verb is almost always the precise one for the specific action, not the most colorful one grabbed from a list, and a list like this can actively tempt a writer toward overwrought, attention-seeking verbs, the same mistake as reaching for fancy dialogue tags.

A character who strode and lunged and barreled through every scene is as monotonous as one who only walked, and arguably worse, because the strain shows. The booklet addresses a real problem with a tool that can worsen it in unskilled hands.

How to use a list like this without being used by it

If a writer does reach for a verb list, there’s a right and a wrong way to do it, and the distinction is the most useful craft point around the product. The wrong way is to draft a sentence, decide the verb is dull, and shop the list for the most exciting replacement. That’s how you end up with prose that strains, every character lunging and seizing and hurtling when they’re merely crossing a room.

The right way is to use the list as a memory jog toward the precise verb you already half-know, the one that captures the exact motion or intention, which may itself be a quiet, ordinary word. A strong verb is an accurate one, not a loud one. Trudged is stronger than walked not because it’s flashier but because it carries information, weariness, effort, reluctance, that walked omits.

A list can point you toward that precision or toward mere noise, and which one you get depends entirely on whether you’re reaching for accuracy or for decoration.

Is 1,000 Strong Verbs for Fiction Writers worth reading?

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