The VERB - May '08

CLEANING UP PROSE

Was is a passive, lazy bum that hangs around your writings, eating all the snacks and drinking all the beer. It should be avoided as much as possible.

Seek out and destroy every weak was you find, and replace it with a sturdy verb.

EXAMPLE:
The room was cold and dark when Billy walked in.

CLEANED UP:
Billy walked into a cold dark room.

EXAMPLE:
Laughter was in her throat.

CLEANED UP:
She laughed.

EXAMPLE:
The door was slammed before she finished her sentence.

CLEANED UP:
He slammed the door before she finished her sentence.

EXAMPLE:
He was proud and strong in the sunlight.

CLEANED UP:
He stood proud and strong in the sunlight.

OUR CURRENT CONTEST

A well-paced story is impossible to put down. As soon as one conflict is resolved, another one rears its ugly head. It’s the stuff that keeps us up all night, turning pages.

What's the speed of your storytelling?

Give us a tale set in the past, present or future. We don’t care where he goes or how she gets there, but your lead character must hit three cities within the span of the story. On your mark, get set, pace it!

Entry Fee: Nada Length: 2,000 words

Grand Prize
$100
Story published in The VERB
One Opinion, also published in The VERB
Signed copy of Elizabeth Guy's book
Making A Scene with Mush Pump and Ice Noodle

Complete details at the Contest Cafe.

SAMPLE OF EXCELLENCE

Nevertheless, ere long, the warm warbling persuasiveness of the pleasant holiday weather we came to seemed gradually to charm him from his mood.

For as when the red-checked dancing girls, April and May, trip home to the wintry misanthropic woods, even the barest, ruggedest, most thunder-cloven old oak will at least send forth some few green sprouts to welcome such glad-hearted visitants; so Ahab did, in the end, a little respond to the playful allurings of that girlish air.

More than once did he put forth the faint blossom of a look, which, in any other man, would have soon flowered out in a smile.

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