Writing tip: Try verbs that don’t belong!

This is one of my favorite tricks for surprising the reader and making a line feel memorable and chewy, like something they can sink their teeth into: Watch for opportunities to use an unexpected verb. An exercise I love for building this muscle (which I stole from the amazing Natalie Goldberg) is to make a list of verbs that are super specific to one activity—say, cooking, or working in an office, or gardening—and then challenge yourself to plop a few of those verbs into unrelated sentences: 

The air boiled with the sound of cicadas.

She kept her gaze stapled to the screen.

Hope blossomed in his chest.

(Psst—this works with nouns, too, for figurative language that feels fresh:

A casserole of dirty clothes covered the sofa.

She slid the fact into a mental folder for later.

The crush felt like a tender bud on his heart.)