If you’ve worked on enough screenplays, you know how insane it can be to describe someone walking across a room for the umpeenth time.
It can cross your eyes and make you feel like you’re at your wits’ end.
Well, I get it, I’ve been there.
Screenwriting is a visual medium where real estate is at an absolute premium. You want to say things short and sweet, but you also want to be evocative of a tone or a mood.
When you use generic, mundane verbs, you miss a golden opportunity to reveal character, establish a feeling, and dictate the pacing of your film right from the page.
So today, I want to go over some ways to get past that in your writing by using action verbs to replace more mundane words you use all the time.
Let’s dive in.
1. Instead of “Walks” or “Goes”
When I do my last polish, I go through my whole script and look for the word “walks.” Then I try to assess if there’s a better way to say someone crosses the room.
This is my final check before I send it out.
As you know, in a script, movement is never just about getting from Point A to Point B. How a character moves tells the audience everything we need to know about their confidence, their emotional weight, or their motives before they even open their mouth.
It’s a great opportunity to show and not to tell.
Here are some options for you for common moods.
- To show hesitation or fear: Creeps, tiptoes, edges, skulks, falters.
- To show anger or purpose: Strides, marches, stalks, storms, barges.
- To show exhaustion or defeat: Trudges, shuffles, drags, plods, slumps.
- To show arrogance or confidence: Struts, saunters, glides, sweeps.
The Difference on the Page:
- Mundane: Tom walks into his boss’s office. (We have no idea what Tom is feeling.)
- Cinematic: Tom slinks into his boss’s office. (We instantly know Tom is guilty, scared, or defeated.)
2. Instead of “Looks” or “Sees”
Again, this is another common word where you can probably do better in some of your seasons, especially in the first ten pages.
You want your characters to interact with their environment dynamically.
So why not try…
- Intense or aggressive focus: Glares, rivets, locks eyes, bores into, scrutinizes.
- Fearful or secretive sight: Peers, glances, darts, scans, sneaks a look.
- Admiration or lost in thought: Gazes, drinks in, drinks down, drinks up, drinks in, marvels, drinks in.
- Casual or unfocused sight: Glimpses, notes, catches, sweeps.
The Difference on the Page:
- Mundane: Elena looks at the mysterious envelope on the desk.
- Cinematic: Elena’s eyes lock onto the mysterious envelope on the desk.
3. Instead of “Takes” or “Gets”
I’m just going through all the greatest hits of words you probably use on every page in every scene, so you hear what I’m saying. It doesn’t mean you need to change all of them; it means you should be selective.
How a character physically handles objects reveals their relationship to that object and their current state of mind.
We love actors doing thignsl ike putting away dishes or tossing a baseball against a wall.
Think about integrating action here.
- Aggressive or desperate actions: Snatches, yanks, claws, seizes, plucks.
- Gentle or cautious actions: Cradles, retrieves, lifts, slips, coaxes.
- Careless or rushed actions: Grabs, scoops, scoops up, scoops away, yanks, chucks.
4. Instead of “Sits” or “Stands”
How are you getting up and down out of your chair? It’s different if it’s a Lazyzee Boy versus the electric chair!
Posture changes are micro-beats in a script. They punctuate a conversation. Don’t let them be dead weight.
- Sitting with emotion: Collapses, drops, sinks, perches, slouches, nests.
- Standing with emotion: Towers, rises, springs, uncoils, hovers.
The Golden Rule: Avoid “The Thesaurus Trap”
I know the temptation is to look for giant words to show people how smart you are, but you have to avoid that trap.
Upgrading your verbs is crucial, but there is a dangerous line between evocative screenwriting and pretentious prose.
You don’t want to make the reader grab a dictionary while they flip pages.
If a director can’t easily instruct an actor how to perform the verb, or a cinematographer can’t easily capture it, pick a simpler word.
Keep your choices sharp, punchy, and instantly visual.
Summing It All Up
These are easy tricks to make your writing more cinematic and to help your words pop off the page. Spicing this stuff up will not only open the reader’s imagination, but your own imagination, too.
Let me know what you think in the comments.
