Teachers often ask me why I feature verbs so prominently in my training and materials for beginning students. It’s because that’s where the action is! And using verbs over adjectives can make for compelling storytelling.

I try to follow the storytelling advice from the creators of South Park: the “but & therefore rule.” Whether you appreciate their admittedly crude humor or not, these guys know how to write a story that keeps moving and engages.

The rule goes like this: the next scene can have a “therefore” or a “but,” but not a “…and then.”  The “and then” signals a discontinuity and a story has to tie together.  A good story has to have cause and effect. It cannot jump around unpredictably from one topic or scene to another. Without a flow like that a story becomes boring. It’s too disjointed. Something has to happen that directly relates to what happened just before. You can use other words similar to “therefore” like “so”, “that’s why”, “since”, or even “as you might expect…”, but it has to tie back to the previous action. I have painfully experienced this.

I got a storytelling epiphany while making up a bedtime story for one of my grandsons that shifted me to more verb-focused storytelling. I was inventing an adventure story about his dog and him being lost in the woods. I was apparently spending too much time describing how dark and scary the woods were and all of the amazing imaginary super powers of his dog. I was describing the scenery and feelings but not furthering the story. There weren’t enough “therefores.” So my grandson interrupted my inartful and lengthy descriptions and said, “But what happened?”

A low blow. Didn’t he appreciate my artistry? My way with words? How vivid a picture I was creating in his mind?

No. He wanted to know what happened next. I had not used the therefore/but rule. I was not using enough verbs to keep his interest.  He was engaged with the story, but I was making it boring for him by overusing adjectives. That’s not good storytelling.

With a discrete number of high-frequency and interesting verbs, we can craft or retell almost any story. Take a look at my list of verbs and see if images and actions you can use in stories don’t pop into your mind.

Works for me.

What are your techniques to get stories and language to stick with your students?