@franky1:
Have you ever found a moment in your own work where just swapping one or two verbs totally shifted how the whole sentence lands when read aloud?
yes. however many times. just writing straight from the head without thinking, ends up with the wrong landing initially, but thats what drafts are for and proof reading
its the difference between 'walks' vs 'hobbles'.. 'looks' vs 'notices'
a boy sees an old man walking down a street
a boy recognised an old man walking down a street
the first sounds like just a meaningless passing glance
the second lands more like there is some relationship that might get explained later, or hints the boy is having thoughts about the person more so than just a passing glance
that one word change puts a unanswered question into the readers mind
the second one makes the reader intrigued to read on, hoping to find out more about the story between the boy/old mans relationship,
leaving subtle unanswered questions is how you hook a reader to read on
even then
a boy sees an old man walking down a street
a boy recognised an old man hobbling down a street
now adds extra questions, is the boy feeling sympathy for the old man by noticing the old man struggling? will the boy stop and help?
you as a writer can use synonyms to help give new ideas for possible story development archs
..the boy continues home [left as a meaningless glance. until a time travel/flashback plot twist many chapters later]
..the boy realises it's Col Jim McBride, the villages famous war hero, shot in the leg by the nazi's in WW2
..its 11pm, the boy realises it's just Jim, the villages famous drunk walking home from the pub