The Impact Of Verbs

Choosing the right verbs will make all the difference.

My name is Merit Visser, and I’m a songwriting and storytelling enthusiast. I break down lyrics and analyse aspects of language to discover storytelling tools. In this article, I reflect on the effect of verbs and illustrate this with some easy exercises.

Some verbs have a bigger impact than other verbs. Let’s call them ‘common verbs’. They are less emotionally or imaginarily charged than what I’d like to call ‘specific verbs’.
Common verbs are kind of flat. They are superficial and lack personality and character. They are easy. Examples of these verbs are ‘go, say, walk, get’, etc. Specific verbs are the kind of verbs that, had they been persons, would have been the head-turners of the room. They have an identity. They are charismatic. Among those verbs are ‘stumble, mumble, trudge, snatch’, etc.

Choosing the right verbs for your story can change the meaning and effect of your story drastically. If you choose the right verb, you don’t need an adjective anymore. Although adjectives brighten up your narrative big time, you can overdo it — but use a descriptive verb and you can nicely even this out.
For example: ‘He wearily walked along the muddy side of the road’ versus ‘He trudged along the muddy side of the road’.
The same goes for using verbs that do not fit the mood of your story. If you tell a story about that time you got a call from your neighbor, informing you your house got broken into, you probably don’t want to use the verb ‘stroll’ to illustrate how you got yourself home.

Now in our everyday conversations, using common verbs is, well, common. You won’t be taken any more seriously if you go around saying things like ‘I’ve just been enjoined by the mailman to sign for your letter’. But in written or verbal storytelling, overthinking your verbs is no frivolous luxury.
However, as we don’t use specific verbs very often in our daily convos or on our grocery shopping lists, it might require some training to dust off our verb vocabulary. How can you do that?

For ‘common’ verbs, you can make lists of more specific alternatives as an exercise. You can even categorize them by mood or emotion. For example, the verb ‘walk’ again.

You can also try and exercise by replacing the verbs in sentences several times, just to see what happens. For example, take this sentence:

I drank my coffee and said: ‘I should go.’

I replaced ‘drank’ and ‘said’ by different verbs and look what happens to the entire meaning and vibe!

I threw back my coffee and yelled: ‘I should go.’

You can sense the person is hurried, stressed, as if he or she needs to catch a train.

I sipped my coffee and murmured: ‘I should go.’

This sounds dreamy, distracted, as if somebody has been daydreaming too long.

I stirred my coffee and whispered: ‘I should go.’

To me this vibe is sad, heavy-hearted, as if somebody just broke up with someone.

I forced down my coffee and sighed: ‘I should go.’

I imagine an uncomfortable situation, as if somebody is longing to get out of an awkward dinner with a weird colleague.

You can easily do this exercise at home. Try and think of the following sentence and replace the verbs:

I went outside and stepped into my car.

Notice (and look for!) different vibes and meanings for every version you come up with.

In music, verbs play a huge role as well. Think of ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ by the Beatles. While my guitar gently weeps has a lovely contradiction to it: gently and weeping don’t often go together and create an unlikely combination that could also be described as a metaphor (but I’ll talk about that more some other time).

See what happens if you replace ‘weeps’ by something more ordinary, like ‘plays’ or ‘sings’. Doesn’t do the trick, does it?

All in all: don’t underestimate verbs and don’t take the easy way out if you want your story to resonate with your listeners or readers. Because well chosen verbs don’t only make your story sparkle; they also tickle the audience’s memories and relationship they have with the verbs. A characteristic verb will conjure images in your listeners’ brains, and by making those images part of your story, you make the audience part of the story — hooray for engagement.

Choose your verbs wisely to intensify your message!