Writing Tip: Adjectives
October 28th, 2009Here’s an exercise in using adjectives that is harder than it looks. Pick something to describe, such as the room you are sitting in right now. Your readers should be able to feel as though they too are in the room, seeing it in detail, hearing the sounds, smelling the smells, touching the objects. Here’s the hard part: You can only use adjectives that cannot be disputed. This means you can’t use any adjectives that imply opinion or judgment, such as pretty, or dirty, or ordinary. You can use adjectives that are objectively true – such as “He is wearing a leather belt.” or “The white walls slant toward me.” or “The starling is making a blawk blawk sound from her nest in the eaves.” Better still is to use no adjectives at all, such as: “The air smells like leftovers.”
I sometimes share writing tips that have worked for me or my clients/students. Do you have a writing tip you’d like to share? If so, leave a comment here. You might win something! At the end of each month I’ll gather up the “Writing Tip” comments from the month and pick one at random from a drawing, and send the winner of the drawing one of my e-books: your choice of How to WOW Your Readers or You Can Be An Author, Even If You’re Not a Writer.
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