Strong and Vibrant Words In Your Writing

I played bridge at a friend's home yesterday afternoon. She had a few snacks on the table. One looked enticing as it came from Trader Joe's, a store known for the best of everything. The fact that chocolate was involved drew my interest even more. The hostess said, "Try some." So I had one and another and a third. 

I picked up the container to check the description printed on the label. It said: Roasted almonds drenched in dark chocolate and sprinkled with sea salt and turbinado sugar. Now, how could a snack like that be anything but sheer delight? 

There was one word that stood out in that description--drenched. They might have said covered in dark chocolate but the person who wrote the blurb on that label used a much finer word. What mental image do you have of drenched vs covered? Covered in chocolate is fine but drenched? Oh wow, that made me want to twist off the top and dive right in. I admit that I dearly love chocolate but even those who are so-so about it would note that one word--drenched.

The point here is that we can all use more interesting verbs, adverbs and adjectives in our writing.  Some would claim that even the word covered is alright. Yes, it IS alright but not nearly as good as drenched. That word stepped right out and grabbed me. The next best word in the description is sprinkled. The word might have been left out and we'd still know what was on the chocolate, but doesn't sprinkled sound nice and give you another mental image?

I'd like you to go one step farther. Look for the very best word possible. Put your thesaurus to work if you must. 

For an exercise today, type the word covered, then look for as many words that might give an even better mental image. Use covered in a phrase if it will help.--covered in mud, covered in jewels, covered in cream and, of course, covered in chocolate. 

When you read, watch for words that speak to you the way drenched did for me. By the way, I did go back for one more piece of chocolate covered almonds later in the afternoon. My cards weren't very good and I needed something soothing! 

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