Be vivid

Where active sentences put the focus on the people, vivid verbs bring those people's actions to life.

Replacing a dull verb with one that sizzles switches writing from on, to on fire.

And, there’s lots of room to be precise and poetic, the former being more important than the latter. The latter being important.

A first draft, where you're making your first roll of those ten dice, might end up with verbs like:

• Annoy
• Play
• Laugh
• Break
• Like
• Dislike
  
  

These are familiar words, understood by all.

You could stop here and have a plain and sturdy structure.

Or you could roll again in search of more sixes.

Six = Familiar + Vivid

The reason to roll is partly for precision, but partly because writers are composers. And your job as the composer is to balance the familiar with the fresh.

• Like = Idolise or Cherish
• Dislike = Detest or Shun
• Annoy = Agitate or Irritate
• Play = Cavort or Romp
• Laugh = Snort or Snicker
• Break = Breach or Crack
  
  

Each alternative is bright, precise, and vivid. And although their shades differ, they share the root colour.

These replacements fix the meaning with imagery and style. Their sounds are suggestive. The person that idolises is not the person that cherishes, and even though the shunned thing is shunned, it carries more favour than the detested thing.

More than any other part of language, pay attention to your verbs.

The very things that carry the action.