(1) Put life into characters
“Dare to race with me?” Ryan
threw me a challenge.
“No sweat!” I replied as I
hopped on my bicycle.
(2) Add sound effects
"Screech!...!"
"Crash!"
"Thud!"
"Snap!"
"Splash!"
"Sh…h…h…"
"Plop!"
"Phew!"
"Splat!"
"Ring!"
"Wow-wow!"
"Bang!
(3) Pace action fast
The woman picked herself up
in a flash and flew to her child. She scooped the little girl up, twirled around and strode
towards me menacingly.
He ran across the chicken yard,
jumped over the fence and dashed towards his sister.
(4) Create suspense
a) Use of one-liner paragraphs:
I checked the boys’ toilet.
No sign of him.
I checked the other classrooms.
Not a trace.
I checked the foyer.
No.
I checked the printing room.
SUCCESS!
I found him!
b) Use of repeated sentence structures
A hundred metres. I leapt
but missed again. I scraped my chin. Fifty metres. Again I missed. A grazed elbow was added
to the list of injuries I had sustained. Twenty metres. I leapt. Success!
(5) Use of “said” substitutes
added
grumbled
roared
begged
muttered
scolded
called out
pleaded
shouted
chorused
protested
thundered
cried
repeated
urged
exclaimed
related
whispered
grunted
replied
yelled
jeered
cheered
hollered
bellowed
groaned
growled
barked
quoted
gloated
(6) Use of extensions to “said”
… said hastily.
… said suddenly.
… said excitedly.
… said dejectedly.
… said with a frown.
… said sarcastically.
… said the cunning shopkeeper.
… said Ben, thumping Muthu’s
back.
… said Ken, his mouth watering at
the thought.
(7) Use of BLOCK letters and exclamation
marks
“CRASH!”
“BANG!”
“BOOM!”
“THUD!”
“OUCH!”
“GO!”
“STOP!”
“RUN!”
“WATCH OUT!”
“HELP!”
“YES!”
“NO!”
“QUICK!”
(8) Use of BLOCK letters only
ALONE.
DEAD…
GONE.
NOTHING!
ALL ALONE!
(9) Use of question marks and exclamation
marks
“Really?!”
“Is that so?!”
“What?!”
“You mean?!”
“Oh?!”
(injects suspicion and/or sarcasm)
(10) Use of dots in threes
I recalled … … … .
“Oh…,”
“H…e…l…p,”
“I …can’t …go…
any… … further…”
“Z… z… z… z…”
