Last week, we took a look at why "write what you know" isn't very helpful advice. (If you missed that email, you can catch up here.)
This week, I want to tackle another piece of dodgy writing advice: "Don't use adjectives
and adverbs."
What, never?
I'll admit that the presence of lots of adjectives (words that modify nouns or pronouns) and adverbs (words that modify anything else, particularly verbs) can be a sign of a fairly new writer, trying very hard to produce good descriptions. The problem is, piling on adjectives bogs down sentences and quickly becomes too
much.
Here's an example, with the adjectives and adverbs marked in bold text:
Thomas sat down on the cold hard wooden bench and turned to Samantha. "I don't understand."
Samantha swiftly pushed her long brown hair out of her blue eyes, and said quite softly, "It's simple. I'm
leaving."
The adjectives aren't adding much here ("cold hard wooden bench" -- so what? If the author does want to describe the bench, something more distinctive would be better). They're detracting from the action and the dialogue.
A better version would look something like this:
Thomas sat down on the bench and turned to Samantha. "I don't understand."
Samantha flicked her
hair out of her eyes, and said softly, "It's simple. I'm leaving."
(I'm okay with "softly" here. I think the way in which she speaks matters. But hair colour and eye colour aren't particularly important, and if Samantha's hair is in her eyes, we can probably assume it's long.)
But to suggest that adjectives and adverbs should NEVER be used is, to my mind, ridiculous. Sometimes they're important for your characterisation
or even your plot: a character who first appears carrying a bright pink umbrella is, surely, a different sort of person from one with a navy blue umbrella. A sharp slap is quite different from a feeble slap ... and so on.
I find that I'm tempted to pile in a few too many adjectives when I'm struggling to describe something: this can be a signal that I need to take a mental step back, re-envisage
a particular scene, character or action, and try again.
Sometimes, of course, adjectives and adverbs simply creep into a first draft and need to be cut down a bit. Try to keep the most powerful, telling adjectives in a given passage; remove any that don't really add anything extra (e.g. a "solid" table ... we'd probably assume it is, anyway, unless you tell us otherwise).
Watch out too for the same adjective or adverb
cropping up a bit too often: maybe you've got cold hands and cold wind and cold skies all on the same page, for instance. You may need to swap some out for different words or look for alternative ways to describe the scene (e.g. "her fingers were numb").
But adjectives aren't at all bad in themselves ... and they can add richness and meaning to your work.
So, here's how I'd rephrase this
rule: "Use adjectives and adverbs sparingly, and make them count."
Next week, we'll take a look at another unhelpful piece of writing advice: never use the passive voice.
