Word Choice

Here's a fun exercise I use when teaching writing skills. I thought it would be fun to see what happens when adult writers play the game.

Choosing interesting words paints pictures in the mind of the reader. Verbs are the best place to start in our easily bored society. Vivid nouns are the next best place to work, because they create concrete images.  Add adjectives and adverbs sparingly for clarity.

For example, consider the following sentence:

     The car went down the street.

How could that be spiced up? Let's start with the verb.

     The car zoomed down the street.

     The car puttered down the street.

     The car limped down the street.

Only the verbs were changed. Yet each sentence creates a variation on the same theme.

Now I'll change a noun.

     The Corvette zoomed down the street.

     The Duster puttered down the street.

    The jalopy limped down the street.

You get the idea. I use this exercise while teaching middle school students, but I find it helps improve my own writing. When teaching kids, I continue to add interest to the sentence, replacing the word "street" with a familiar road in town, adding color to the car, replacing the vehicle with a donkey, etc.

Now you play. How would you rewrite the sentence?