This week: Oh, the drama! Edited by: Lilli 🧿 ☕ More Newsletters By This Editor
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“It ain’t whatcha write, it’s the way atcha write it.”
~ Jack Kerouac, WD
“For your born writer, nothing is so healing as the realization that he has come upon the right word.”
~ Catherine Drinker Bowen
“Style means the right word. The rest matters little.”
~ Jules Renard |
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Cut all the adjectives & adverbs" is right up there with "Show, don't Tell", as one of the first "rules" that new writers get told, and for similar reasons. And although it's perhaps responsible for more bland, threadbare writing than almost any other phenomenon except the ghost of Hemingway, it's not entirely nonsense either, any more than Hemingway is.
The truth is, writing would be impossible if we couldn't use adjectives, adverbs and adverbial and adjectival phrases. But although you'll never get me to say that you "should" cut them, there is a whiff of good writerly sense somewhere at the root of it. It's not necessarily a bad idea to take a long, hard look at the quality of adverbs and adjectives in your writing, and seeing if the effect they're trying for would be better achieved another way.
Let's start with some basics first.
What is an adjective?
An adjective is a word or phrase naming an attribute, added to or grammatically related to a noun to modify or describe it.
What is an adverb?
An adverb is a word or phrase that modifies or qualifies an adjective, verb, or other adverb or a word group.
So, this week we are going to take a look as some possible substitutions for the ever-popular 'very'. This is an adverb that can easily be removed from your writing and increase the impact immediately. Here are some suggestions:
Instead of saying... Try saying this...
very afraid terrified
very angry furious
very bad atrocious
very big immense
very good supberb
very large colossal
very roomy spacious
very thin gaunt
very tired exhausted
If you need some help find the right word to replace your 'very whatever', use a thesaurus! Or even WdC's Indeanary which can be found under "Writing.com Tools"!
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