Weak writing fails to make an impact. Powerful writing grabs your reader’s attention and keeps them reading.
You don’t have to be a super hero to write power words. You just need to know a few tricks.
1. Never use two words when one word is better. Typically, the two-word issue arises when you abuse adverbs. Dash, bolt, sprint are power-loaded words. ‘Runs quickly’ is for wimps.
2. Use words in an unexpected way to add power to the sentence. These are typically your theme words or scene-related words. (e.g. if your scene deals with death, your power words would be related to death).
Example: . . . he watched the light bleedslowly out of day . . . . (Whispersby Dean Koontz)
3. Use words to show a shift in the emotion and mood of the scene.
Example: skip, sunshine, rose-scented, trudge, stench of rotting corpses, spiraling down
4. For the most impact, put your power words at the end of the sentence or paragraph. It’s not always possible, but sometimes all you need to do is rework the sentence.
Before: I’m the one who came home to witness the body bag being wheeled out of the front door, Nate covered in blood, and the flashing of emergency lights lighting up the afternoon sky.
After: I’m the one who came home to witness the flashing of emergency lights lighting up the afternoon sky, the body bag being wheeled out the front door, and Nate covered in blood. (WIP)
Noticed the difference in how I ordered the phrases between the two sentences. In the second one, they go from least important to the one with most impact (Nate covered in blood).
This is also a great trick for emphasising something or hiding information. If you want to emphasize it, place it at the end of the paragraph. If you want the reader to find out about the information, but not realize it’s important, then bury it in the middle of the paragraph. It’s foreshadowing without screaming foreshadowing. Cool, huh?
Do you use consciously use power words in your writing? Do you have any other suggestions?