3. Action Writing

Lesson Set C: Action Writing

Lesson 11: Action Writing

In these lessons you will practice writing sentences with single action verbs only. You will need the list of action verbs from Lesson 6: Action Verb List. Better, though, to use Banish Boring Words.

1. Write five sentences that create a "sort of" story line from the given prompt.

2. Separate your sentences with a space between; they need to be only loosely connected in meaning.

3. Use only one single action verb in each sentence.

4. Do not use linking verbs or helping verbs; do not create compound or complex sentences - only one, single, action verb per sentence to tell your "story."

5. Then, as you create each single-action-verb sentence, add a participial (or gerund) phrase. At least one of those participial phrases must be at the beginning of the sentence.

Action Writing Example:

• Prompt: Describe the trouble you get into with a beach ball that is quite irritating.

I kicked the beach ball, stubbing my toe in the process. The ball hit a post, careening back towards me. Striking me in the forehead, the ball knocked me flat on my back. I leaped to my feet, charging towards the irritating ball, hoping to obliterate it. Rolling casually across my path, the ball tripped me this time, tipping me forward onto my face in the sand.

• Task: Copy these five sentences into your notebook - so as to place them clearly in your own mind. Be sure to capitalize and punctuate correctly, as you see. Copy them twice.

Note:

1. The single action verbs are in red.
2. The participles are in green.
3. There can be more than one participle per sentence, but only one action verb.
4. Do not use any particular verb or participle more than once.

Lesson 12-A: Action Writing Practice

• Write: Now, write your own set of 5 single action verb sentences with participle phrases using the following prompt.

Prompt: Write about being friends with a snowman who scares kids.

• Send: Action Writing “Snowman.” Your editor will mark it and send it back to you for redo. The task is not completed until you have written the five sentences with no errors.

Lesson 13: Change Weak Verbs to Action

Students often write using weak verb constructions and weak infinitives. This is the primary reason (there are others) why student papers are so boring. This exercise helps you spot and eliminate these problems in your own writing.

• Task: Complete the entire process through the exercise: Change Weak Verbs to Action. Follow the directions carefully. The ways of thinking required to change weak verb constructions into action verbs are patterned through this exercise.

   

Lesson 14: Change Weak Verbs to Action: Practice

• Task: Now, find five sentences in your own Narrative 1 that have weak verb constructions, weak infinitives, or otherwise unnecessary wording (Your five "best" worst sentences). Reduce and revise them in the same way as the Change Weak Verbs to Action exercise. It may take you a number of trials to arrive at your best reduction.

• Send: Send your editor a document that includes both your original sentences and your final revision of those same sentences. Your editor will mark it and send it back to you for redo. The task is not completed until you have re-written the five sentences to have no weak or unnecessary words.

Lesson 12-B: More Action Writing

• Write: Write a second Action Writing exercise; the directions are the same as the first.

1. Write five sentences that create a "sort of" story line from the given prompt.
2. Separate your sentences; they need to be only loosely connected in meaning.
3. Use only one single action verb in each sentence.
4. Do not use linking verbs or helping verbs; do not create compound sentences - only one, single, action verb per sentence to tell your "story."
5. Then, as you create each single action verb sentence, add a participial (or gerund) phrase. At least one of those participial phrases must be at the beginning of the sentence.

• Prompt: Describe what it's like living next door to a skunk who is afraid of people.

• Send: Action Writing “Skunk.” Your editor will mark it and send it back to you for redo. The task is not completed until you have written the five sentences with no errors.

Lesson 15: Voice

Voice is the writer coming through the words to the reader, the sense that a real person is speaking to us and cares about the message. Voice conveys the wit, the feeling, the life and breath of the writer. Through Voice, the reader senses the personality and the intentions of the writer. Voice brings the topic to life for the reader.

Voice is conveyed through the particular words the writer chooses, their arrangement, and the specific ideas carried by those words.

• Task: Read through the following webpages. Think about your own writing style. Use the ideas you read to help you develp your own unique voice. 1. Voice and Style in Writing. 2. Understanding Voice and Tone in Writing. 3. Tips for Creating Voice in Your Writing.


• E-Docs: Developing Your Own Voice. Read through this document. Apply what you learn to your own writing, but specifically to your Narrative revision.

Developing Your Own Voice is a key to effective writing.

The first thing I learned was writing with action. In high school, all the teachers assumed everyone knew how to write essays, but this person was bad at writing essays. Essays were the lowest grades I would get, but I would still try. In this writing course, I learned why my writing was horrible. The course introduced me to action writing and boy, that made a change. Therefore, my essays are better. Now I write. - Cynthia

Note: By copying Langrish and other writers, you are allowing a distinctive writing voice to flow through your mind, imprinting itself upon your thinking. Do not think that this practice is "drowning out" your own voice. Rather, it's doing something quite different. By learning what is a distinctive voice coming through the flow of words, you are better able to forge your own unique voice, personal to you, but now as meaningful writing that will affect your own reader. (Rather than, say, boring your reader to death, as happens with all "voiceless" writing.)
 

Lab 3: Revise & Reduce to Action Writing

• Task: Work through your Narrative 1 Draft. Take each sentence and seek for ways to strengthen the action and to omit needless words, just as you did in the Change Weak Verbs to Action exercise. When possible, use a single action verb in the past tense along with participles or participial phrases, just as you did in the Action Writing exercise. This is a work in progress, you are starting, not completing, Draft 2. However, work on every sentence in your Narrative until it says the most with the fewest words centered on strong, interesting, and vivid action verbs.


• Send: Let your editor know when you have completed Lab 3 and are ready to proceed to Lesson Set 4: Write to Characterize and Describe.