Mark Twain, who wrote Tom Sawyer and many other stories that kids find delightful, did not have great affection for adjectives. He is quoted as saying, "If you can find an adjective, kill it."
Verbs, on the other hand, Twain considered useful. Like most well-published authors, Twain understood that the essence of successful writing was often in its brevity. By making a fuss over verbs, the writer can convey more than by paying the same degree of attention to adjectives or to any other part of speech for that matter.
Twain's Verb Selections
Roxy had for so many days nourished and fondled and petted her notion that Tom would be glad to see his old nurse and would make her proud and happy to the marrow with a cordial word or two (Pudd'nMead Wilson).
Unquestionably the discovery of the Mississippi is a datable fact, which considerably mellows and modifies the shiny newness of our country (Life on the Mississippi).
A settled sadness rested once more upon the countenance of the good Duke's daughter (A Medieval Romance).
I was armed to the teeth with a pitiful little Smith & Wesson's seven-shooter, which carried a ball like a homeopathic pill, and it took the whole seven to make a dose for an adult (Roughing It).
Verbs are the essence of the sentence. The verb(s) conveys not only the action but also the character of the action and sometime foreshadow the outcome of the sentence or the paragraph..
Dressing Up Verbs
Sentence 1.
He walked to the bus stop.
He strolled to the bus stop.
He dawdled on the way to the bus stop.
Sentence 2
Needless to say, he missed his bus.
Notice the relationship between dawdled and missed.