I use the psychologically-based techniques I learned in Margie's Empowering Characters' Emotions class to add texture and flavor to my writing. Margie taught me that a visceral response will outdo an adverb every time. Now my heroine's heart no long beats loudly - it pounds like a drunk in an old western dragging his tin cup across the jail bars.
There’s a great power in words, if you don’t hitch too many of them together.