I try to use action words as much as possible. Action verbs are a hoot. I attended a workshop where the speaker handed out a list of action verbs and we wrote a story using them. Odd things like convinced, motored, solved. They really can make a story vibrate with life.
However, they can cause the opposite. Working on 'Blue' last night, I thought I might use motored for the dragon. Then I realized. Even given some leeway to have a brilliant new verb added to the tale, if it didn't fit (I mean really - what dragon can motor!), what good was it.
Anything that will draw my reader from the story is useless. It's well and good to have a great verb, but if it doesn't fit, all my reader will do is sit back and say, 'Hm, unusual place for that verb.' A great verb has been wasted. But worse than that, the reader might even (Heaven forbid it) put down the book in disgust! Yes. That could be an outcome.
Much as I'd like to burn my readers with flaming verbs, I cannot get a dragon to motor. I can have him balance on his toes, if he's a light-footed dragon. I can have her launch into the sky, though that's a bit of a stretch. And I can have him belch fire.
And that's a fact.
Life motors along.
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