Our guest today is McCall Hoyle! McCall is both a lovely writer and lovely human being. Because we had the same publisher and editor, I had the opportunity to hang out with her at two American Library Association conferences. And even though we’ve eaten several meals and been on a panel together, I have no pictures of just the two of us! Here’s the one I have:

McCall is the cute one on the right. (Beside her is Christina June, me, our editor Jillian Manning, Heather Maclean, and then a librarian who we pulled into our picture and maybe didn’t want to be in it.)

In addition to being a teacher and media specialist, McCall is the author of two contemporary YA novels, The Thing With Feathers and Meet The Sky. She also has a middle grade book releasing in 2021 called Stella.

Please welcome McCall!

The Super, Easy Way to Make Your Writing Snap, Crackle, and Pop

(Spruce Up Your Verbs)

If I told you that you could greatly improve your grades in English by going through your essays and revising one simple part of speech, would you believe me? If I told you that going through your current manuscript and simply improving the quality of your verbs might someday help you publish your work, would you believe me?

You don’t have to believe me. I’m just an English teacher who’s won a handful of writing contests and published a couple of young adult novels. But you should totally believe Stephen King. After all, he’s one of the world’s most famous fiction writers. In his book, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, Mr. King frequently addresses the importance of strong action verbs and curses lazy writing that relies on those pesky adverbs that frequently end in ly.

What’s all the fuss over strong action verbs, you ask? To start with, verbs, and especially action verbs, are the pivot point of every sentence. Verbs put the teeter in the totter, inject action into scenes, and drive them forward. (See what I did there—with the “inject” and the “drive”?) Verbs show characters’ quirks and tics and even convey drama in plots.

Do you remember the three different types of verbs: linking, helping, and action? Today, we’re going to focus on reducing the number of linking verbs in our writing in an effort to tighten our sentences and make our writing sizzle. We’ll get to the other two verb types in the next two posts.

There are many linking verbs in the English language, but there are a handful that we especially overuse when we’re writing quickly or being lazy. If we just focus on not overusing the most common ones—is, am, was, were, are—we will see an immediate improvement in our writing.

Here’s a boring sentence that uses a weak linking verb:

She is nice.

This sentence tells me something. It doesn’t show me anything. How is she nice? Think about how to show me something. What does she do that’s nice? Now, pick an action verb and show me.

This sentence uses verbs to show how the girl is nice:

She rushes toward the crying child dangling from the monkey bars, scoops him into her arms, and places him gently on the bench beside his mother.

Can’t you see this image unfolding like a movie in your head? That’s what readers want. Don’t trust me. Do it yourself. Pick two to three pages of the book, story, or essay that you’re working on. Go through and highlight every time you use the verbs is, am, was, were, are. If you’re feeling really motivated, Google linking verbs and make a list of all twenty-three, including others such as: would, should, could, will, did, do, etc. Then go through the selected pages of your writing and highlight every time you use a weak linking verb.

On a side note, it’s unrealistic to believe that anyone will completely banish linking verbs from their writing. I’ve used a ton in this short post, although I challenge you to read some of my fiction and try to find pages with more than a handful on any page. And of course, dialogue is an exception. Use all the weak linking verbs you like in dialogue. Sadly, we humans are even lazier in our speaking than we are in our writing. Needless to say, we use linking verbs constantly when we speak.

But we’re trying to publish fiction here, people. Let’s take Stephen King’s advice. After you’ve highlighted all the linking verbs on two or three pages of your writing, think about what you’re trying to show your readers. Now pick some action verbs. The choices are endless—stomp, kiss, crush, tickle, skip, jab, stab, backflip, vomit, laugh, cackle, hiss, caress, smack, etc. Take the action verbs of your choice, combine them with a little extra detail, and ta-da, watch your writing come alive.

For more practice, choose a couple of random pages from your favorite book. Highlight all the linking verbs on each page and compare yourself to one of your writing heroes.

When you’re finished, leave a comment to let me know what you noticed about your writing, how you revised the verbs, what you learned, etc.

McCall Hoyle lives in the foothills of the North Georgia Mountains with her husband, children, and an odd assortment of pets. She is a middle school teacher-librarian. When she’s not reading, writing, or teaching, she’s probably playing with or training one of many dogs. You can learn more about her, her two young adult novels, and her upcoming middle grade release, Stella, at mccallhoyle.com or on Instagram at mccallhoylebooks.