Different ways to say 'walked toward', 'moved toward'

approached
crept up on
drew near
came close to
advanced on
closed in on

Or find ways to avoid it altogether. "Mindy!" I waited until we were close enough to talk without shouting. "Did you hear about...?"

Crossed to
Arrived at
Reached

This is where a thesaurus could help.

There's stacks of ways of getting from point A to B. Slouched, shuffled, stumbled, crawled, strolled, stalked, minced, crept, raced, stormed, hopped, skipped, charged, elbowed, swaggered, lurched, wandered, raced, ambled, headed for...............across/toward

Sashayed
slogged
plodded
trekked
strutted

Also, consider whether you need to mention his walking at all. Perhaps just skip it and allow the reader to realize that he must have walked, when the next action is at the destination. Sometimes we explain things that aren't really necessary.

JD

I think JD's suggestion is the best option. Even if you change the way a certain action is stated it can still become redundant. Just try to not be too discriptive. The reader can mentally fill in any blanks, so adding too much information can disturb the flow.

walking

ixchel said:

I'm going crazy! Apparently I used 'walked toward,' and 'moved toward' too much in my manuscript. Can anyone think of different ways to say this?

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When characters are doing too much walking, the writing is the problem, not the words. Stop looking for different ways of saying it, and start eliminating all the walking.

True, I overlooked that. Perhaps 'looking' and 'smiling' come into the same category.

Jamesaritchie said:

When characters are doing too much walking, the writing is the problem, not the words. Stop looking for different ways of saying it, and start eliminating all the walking.

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ambulated in the general direction of

I like that. You you should use it.

Whatever you do, if you need to make characters walk toward something, please don't have them make their way towards it. In a best seller, I read "She made her way toward the..." so many times in the book, it ruined it.

The 11th book in the Janet Evanovich's series. (Can't remember the title.) She tends to use this term "made/making her way" in her other books, too, but in the 11th, she outdid herself. And many times a writer doesn't even have to show the person walking. Or, as others have said, there are other ways of putting it. Janet E. could have utilized another term.

"Cara," I muttered, swaggering toward her like a lion. "Have you had time to consider my proposal?"
"Yes," she replied, tiptoeing toward me with the delicate grace of a ballerina.
"Well, what's your answer?" I barked, shuffling ever closer to her, like a shuffler.
"Hm," she mumbled, sidestepping in my direction.
"Ahem," I retorted, as I picked up my left foot, and then placed it down again a few feet from where it had originally been. Then I repeated the process with my right foot.

(We were in a stadium.)

You'd be surprised how serviceable "went" is. Under normal circumstances, if your character "went" from the living room to the bedroom, most readers will subliminally assume he walked. Pushing some word like "moseyed" or "ambled" is akin to avoiding the simple "he said" by saying "he expostulated" or "he exclaimed." It's often just plain unnecessary.

caw.

This is a very common problem. It's come up more times than I care to mention in my critique group. The movement that takes place within scenes. There's only so many ways to explain it. Looks like quite a few have been mentioned here.

ixchel said:

I'm going crazy! Apparently I used 'walked toward,' and 'moved toward' too much in my manuscript. Can anyone think of different ways to say this?

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slither
slink
slunk (Grinch)
mosey
flew
skidded
slid

Podlingmaster

blacbird said:

You'd be surprised how serviceable "went" is. Under normal circumstances, if your character "went" from the living room to the bedroom, most readers will subliminally assume he walked. Pushing some word like "moseyed" or "ambled" is akin to avoiding the simple "he said" by saying "he expostulated" or "he exclaimed." It's often just plain unnecessary.

caw.

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Exactly. And sometimes it's as simple as "The party was well under way, and guests filled the small house. He found Clare in the kitchen." Readers will assume he walked to the kitchen, rather being swooped up on a magic carpet.

When you find yourself look for other ways to say something because you've already said it one way too many times, the problem is nearly always that you shouldn't be saying it at all.

Anybody mentioned mooch yet?

I've never used mooch as a means to get from point A to point B. I use mooch to replace bum or borrow.

Bk_30 said:

I've never used mooch as a means to get from point A to point B. I use mooch to replace bum or borrow.

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Maybe it´s a British/Irish thing, I use it to mean wlaking about slowly with no particular purpose.

mooch

newmod said:

Maybe it´s a British/Irish thing, I use it to mean wlaking about slowly with no particular purpose.

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In America, "mooch" means someone who bums things from friends or others. He's always bumming cigarettes, beer, food, you name it.

"The heels of her shoes clacked loudly on the stone floor, each step jarring her consciousness, until she stopped, staring the dragon in the eyes, just inches from its teeth."