What's a creative way to say 'look'?
- Browse
- Come across
- Examine
- Eye
- Flipped through
- Focus on
- Gape
- Gawk
- Gaze
- Glance
- Glare
- Glean
- Glimpse
- Inspect
- Leaf through
- Leer
- Observe
- Ogle
- Peek
- Peer
- Peruse
- Scan
- Scrutinize
- Search
- Slanted my view
- Spot
- Stare
- Study
- Surf
- Take in
- Watch
- Another thing I learned is that rather than just change the verb, do some things that IMPLY looking: "He raised his eyebrow." or "Her eyes widened." or "When she walked into the room, his eyes popped out of his head." (Thank you Hart Johnson.)
- Or, rather than use any of these terms, just describe what is happening. For example, rather than say "He opened the drawer and saw the knife." write "He opened the drawer. A bloody knife lay on the Gideon's Bible." Or, "He looked at the beautiful woman" becomes "A woman walked into the room, and he closed the book he'd been reading." (Thank you Connie Keller.)
Now, how about another question:
What is a creative way to say 'walk'?
35 comments:
Who can resist the allure of a bombshell blonde sashaying her way into the chamber?
As far as the eyes popping, that's a creative one, but it could also mean that his eyeballs popped right out of their sockets, onto the floor. Language can so easily be misconstrued.
This is a great list! I'm RTing it.
What a good list and what good suggestions.
Totally cool. Let see walk...
I love sauntered
then there is limped and glided and there is one I love that begins with an "L" but I can't remember it.
Ambled
I love English!
Yay for such a brilliant list - love it!!
Now another way to say "walk" -
1)rambled - to ramble
2)pound the pavement! LOL!
3)stepped? One step after another! Ahem!
Take care
x
What a wonderful blog post! It's like being part of a really good critique group! :)
Walk word: toddled
I've always had an affinity for...ambled. :)
You've definitely analyzed this. Your approach to writing is very scientific.
seems like some basic stuff. First rule of writing is being creative.
Hi, Clarissa,
These questions are great. This is an awesome list.
Jeff's is terrific.
How about. He strutted into the room, acting as if he owned the place.
I love making lists like these. Great job!
This is great Clarissa!
Walk: lope, step, gambol, mince, pace, strut, stroll, wade and ramble.
Strolled, strutted, traipsed, meandered, strided...
I love lumbered. Not the usual word but I think it is so visual.
In the Stephanie Plum novels, Janet Evanovich uses "sashay" when Stephanie is trying to be sexy. I like that!
Traipse is a fun word, too!
I was looking for this list! Thank you!
How about my black cat who likes to slink about the yard...
Great list! Thanks. Hmm, instead of walk?
Stroll, strut, saunter, wander.
That is a great list. Hmmm...another word for walk.
This sentence came to mind: He approached me slowly, calculated, the soles of his shoes whispering as he placed one foot in front of the other.
For walk - okay, everyone's said all the good one's, um, how about scuttle, lurch, waddle ...
Clarissa - First, thanks for that list :-).
As to walking? I always start with trying to express how fast the character is going (amble, stroll, head towards, go, dash, sprint, etc..)
Hi Clarissa .. we need to expand our language base - looking at the great answers you've received already.
Toddle, lope, I do like amble .. slip sliding ... march ..
Quite a few more to find too I'm sure - bright bunch these bloggers - enjoy the compilation ..
Thanks for peering through the looking glass .. Hilary
nice list of words
And people not on the up and up can sidle up/over to someone.
Look: Here's another -- He acknowledged her from across the room...
Walked: I think all my suggestions have been listed.
What fun!
Thanks for visiting my blog- I liked your comment. Have a great week!
Excellent list!! And I like the tricky ones that imply the verb/action without actually saying it. :) Nice.
I always say "amble"--sometimes too much. Or trotted. Marched. Strode. Waddled. Sashayed. Or even "she hot-footed it into the kitchen." :)
Hey, thank you for the mention! That's a pretty impressive list of words!
Walking is one I love because people's walks can have so much personality. It is one of the ways you can tag characters, i think--if you have a strutter, or a person who 'dances over' or bounces, glides... those can all imply either mood or personality, depending on how regularly they are done.
Ogle, I would not have thought about that one.
I think your list for this word should be shorter, but hike jumps in my head.
Brilliant! I just read a book not too long ago and it was full of "he/she looked down to..." It was very annoying.
I love this list! The thesaurus is my best bud when it comes to using different, fun words. How about "sashayed" for walk?
hi miss clarissa! wow! cool list. fpr sure im saving it. for that walk one i got thinking on when i get in trouble i "hotfoot" it outta the room real fast. ha ha.
...smiles and hugs from lenny
Eyes popping out of the head reminds me of the rose fish up north. It lives in deep waters, and under high pressure- When it's pulled up to the surface and standard athmosperic pressure, the eyes often pop out >:)
Cold As Heaven
Love this list.
strutted, sauntered, hobbled, waddled
Hey, these are great! You rule, C. I especially like the end there with the implication of looking. Closing the book and all. Thanks, girl~
It seems all the funny words have been taken so I´ll march out again ;)
Great exercise, and not only for writers. I sometimes write a boring adjective on the blackboard and ask my students to come up with something better. My ´blacklist´ is good, bad, little, big.
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