It's Alive!
Bring your writing to life with strong verbs and specific nouns, you say? What does that mean, exacxtly? Well, I'll give specific examples and show you exactly what I mean.
Strong Verbs
This subject relates to passivity and, as a general rule, passive = bad. For example, the verb "to be" is a weak verb. It lends so little imagery it needs a helper verb in order to convey what's happening.
The more specific you are, the better. If you're going to use a bird to help convey an image or feeling, use a specific bird. Don't say someone has puppy-eyes, say what kind of puppy.
Geneva was walking toward the well.
"was walking" tells us what Geneva was doing but not how she was doing it. You could start adding adjectives like "quickly" or whatever, but that's a cop out. One good strong verb takes care of the whole thing and gets the picture in the reader's head a lot more effectively. Replace "was walking" with a stronger verb: walk, race, plod, dash or whatever good strong image your scene requires.
Geneva plodded toward the well.
TIP: Quite often you'll find your strong verb disguised as an adverb, adjective or helper verb next to the weak verb. Take the example above: With "was walking" the stronger verb is "walk." It's not always so easy to find the strong verb, but since a weak verb often needs modifiers, any place where you've got lots of adjectives and adverbs is a good place to use a stronger verb. Naturally, it's not always a matter of changing the verb and moving on. Sometimes you need to re-write the entire sentence or passage in order to effectively use the strong verb.
So, I should replace every weak verb with a strong one, right?
No! If only it were so easy. Weak verbs have their virtues. A weak verb can pave the way for the strong verb coming up and give it more punch.
To Be: the Verb of Last Resort
Specificity
This subject also relates to passivity and, as a general rule, passive = bad. The more specific you are, the better. If you're going to use a bird to help convey an image or feeling, use a specific bird. Don't say someone has puppy-eyes, say what kind of puppy. Your specific choice makes a difference. Probably one example is enough:
The ball flew like a bird startled from a bush.
The ball flew like a grouse startled from a bush.
The ball flew like a finch startled from a bush.
The ball flew like a hawk startled from a bush.
The ball flew like a goose startled from a bush.
See what I mean? Each specific bird gives a slightly different image. Be specific.
Your assignment
Take a look at any chapter of your work-in-progress (WIP). Replace weak verbs with strong ones and replace generic nouns with specific ones.
Extra Credit
Do the same thing to the rest of your WIP.