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 has 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.

I have mixed feelings about this booklet. The principle is one I’d preach to anyone who writes, because a weak verb leaning on an adverb is the flabbiest habit in amateur prose. The product built on that principle is thin, and I’m not convinced it belongs on the desk next to a good thesaurus.

What does Valerie Howard’s book of vigorous verbs 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.

I admit that small job is real. A writer stuck on walked for the tenth time might find the jolt useful. My complaint is that the booklet does so little to tell them which verb fits.

Watch: Writing Lesson: Strong Verbs, Professor Geek

The main problem

It sits near the bottom of the scale because a thesaurus does the same job for free, and does it better, offering 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, and a list like this can tempt a writer to grab the most colorful one instead, reaching for 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 probably worse, because the strain shows. The booklet addresses a real problem with a tool that can worsen it in unskilled hands.

Overwrought verbs bother me more than weak ones. A weak verb is invisible, while a showy one shoves the writer into the frame, where the reader never wanted him to be.

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. Trudged is stronger than walked because it carries information, weariness, effort, reluctance, that walked omits.

Trudged is the best example in it. The strong verb carries weariness and effort that walked leaves out, and that’s the only test I care about: does the word add information, or does it add noise? 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?

It’s a 5 because the idea is right and the tool is redundant. If you’re going to spend money on verbs, spend it on a good thesaurus and a slow, careful editing pass, and treat this list as a memory jog for the word you already half-know. Used for decoration, it’ll make your prose worse, and that’s a steep cost for a booklet this slim.

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