Has the war on adjectives gone too far?

Anything writing-related that gets to the point where it's likened to being a war has gone too far. I can't think I've ever read a single published novel that doesn't make use of adjectives (or adverbs, or filters, or "ing" verbs, or to-be verbs, or any other thing our intro to creative writing instructors cautioned us about).

Like anything else in writing, use them for a reason, when they're the best tool for what you're trying to accomplish with a given sentence. Don't use them lazily, redundantly, or as a crutch to prop up weak nouns (though even these rules can have exceptions if you're doing this to establish a certain character voice or personality).

Listen to your editors and beta readers, because they can pick up on patterns you're too close to your own prose to see. And learn how to put something you've written down and come back to it with fresh eyes, so you can see whether or not you still like the way you've written it.

But you also have to accept that there will be people who disagree with/dislike the choices you make as a writer, no matter how many novels you may publish or awards you win.

Roxxsmom said:

Anything writing-related that gets to the point where it's likened to being a war has gone too far. I can't think I've ever read a single published novel that doesn't make use of adjectives (or adverbs, or filters, or "ing" verbs, or to-be verbs, or any other thing our intro to creative writing instructors cautioned us about).

Like anything else in writing, use them for a reason, when they're the best tool for what you're trying to accomplish with a given sentence. Don't use them lazily, redundantly, or as a crutch to prop up weak nouns (though even these rules can have exceptions if you're doing this to establish a certain character voice or personality).

Listen to your editors and beta readers, because they can pick up on patterns you're too close to your own prose to see. And learn how to put something you've written down and come back to it with fresh eyes, so you can see whether or not you still like the way you've written it.

But you also have to accept that there will be people who disagree with/dislike the choices you make as a writer, no matter how many novels you may publish or awards you win.

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See, there ya' go again with another kick-ass post of awesome.

Caveat: 'Listen' (aka—pay attention) to beta readers/editors/whatnot. If you agree and make changes, do so in a separate document.

try 'roadside picnic'

in the hands of a master (or masters in the case of the brothers who wrote RP) adjectives make images jump off the page

another book with a similar writing style is house of leaves -- lots of adjectives and long, flowing sentences that should, according to some, doom a written work. yet HoL is still in the top 1000 on amazon after like 15 years. hmm...

maybe we should just stop trying to follow "the formula" so much and write, eh?

all imo

cutecontinent said:

try 'roadside picnic'

in the hands of a master (or masters in the case of the brothers who wrote RP) adjectives make images jump off the page

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In German class, we had lessons on story writing. And adjectives were praised to make things come alive and become more colorful. Of course not in excess but nothing is ever good in excess.

As for purple, anyone read Jean Genet's diary? I'm sorry, that thing is genius.

I'm another one just writing and ignoring the war. If the adjective, adverb, ing very etc works, improves the flow etc then I put it in. Personally, I don't enjoy reading books that are very bare and spare.

My absolute favourite book to read is stuffed full of adjectives and -ly adverbs and I couldn't care less whilst I am reading it.

Prose has cadences, like poetry, but they are very complex. Adjectives can have a huge effect on that cadence and on the sound and shape of our phrases. If you play music the concept of phrasing is fairly fundamental: you don't end a section of, say, four bars the same way you began it. It grows, peaks, etc. And where it does so communicates the expression aurally. Words can do the same thing, thus giving us additional layers of meaning beyond the layers covered by the words' own meanings. One word placed near another changes the meaning of both words.

For an example, Richard Strauss' Death and Transfiguration (a.k.a. Tod un Verklarung).

The advice about adjectives either applies in situations where the writer in question may not yet be capable of really manipulating sound and also in situations where the writer is attempting to manipulate sound and he or she ain't doing so right.

In music, especially professional music, 99% of rehearsal time is spent figuring this out and it's why conductors wave their arms around so much. Pro musicians can keep time across the orchestraon their own, more or less. The conductor rehearses the phrasing and sound and then guides the orchestra through it in performance. Search for Eiji Oue conducting Holst's "Jupiter" from The Planets to see this. No orchestra gets the phrasing on sight read, especially for a new piece of music. Composers often attend rehearsals of their new pieces and walk the musicians through the vision that's supposed to be conveyed, much as a writer might work with an editor to achieve the right balance of words, meaning, accessibility, etc.

I'd say it stands to reason that writers also need to practice how they shape words and phrases, and that it probably takes us more than one try to get it right and learn the sound of our prose (or poetry, of course!).

To reduce it to "do or do not" or to a simple rule is a totally false dichotomy no matter which side of it you end up on.

VeryBigBeard said:

Prose has cadences, like poetry, but they are very complex. Adjectives can have a huge effect on that cadence and on the sound and shape of our phrases.

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Lovely. Well said.

The double adjective ("her long, straight hair") is pretty close to being eligible for a list of dos and don'ts. One reason is that it almost always screws up the cadence.

every time I hear hyperbole like "war on adjectives" I get pissy in general at the absolutism and general, self-defeating notion something is all or nothing, and there fore must be an evil nothing thrown out there by the big, bad gatekeepers....




there is a reason for every rule, as well as an exception. the true art in any art is learning the when and why of both....

VeryBigBeard said:

Prose has cadences, like poetry, but they are very complex. Adjectives can have a huge effect on that cadence and on the sound and shape of our phrases. [...]

To reduce it to "do or do not" or to a simple rule is a totally false dichotomy no matter which side of it you end up on.

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Yes, yes, yes

morngnstar said:

The double adjective ("her long, straight hair") is pretty close to being eligible for a list of dos and don'ts. One reason is that it almost always screws up the cadence.

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Depends on the surrounding sentences.

BenPanced said:

Tune in next week for the war on ending sentences with prepositions!

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I wish.

I remember reading somewhere, I think it was Hemingway that said it, that descriptions should not be given that are already known to the reader. We know that grass is green, etc. Of course, most writers avoid using those things anyway. I think they just try to use the adjectives to set a tone. But the problem sometimes with resolving that issue by showing is that it can get too long winded and therefore defeats the purpose. I generally try to keep the emotion and atmosphere character oriented so that rather than having so many things that could be described to have an effect, I just focus more heavily on the character to have that effect.

shadowwalker said:

I've noticed that a lot of these "rules" come from writers more than from readers. That kinda indicates how much attention one should give these "rules".

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There are fashions among writers as well as among readers. Sometimes these fashions are frivolous, and are more about conforming to a group consensus among writers than they are about achieving a creative end.

Many writers abuse adjectives because they haven't mastered the art of being specific enough in their choice of verbs and nouns. Therefore someone once told a writer to cut the needless adjectives, and that snowballed into being an inmutable rule that all writers must follow always.

The good rule is: does the adjective add clarity to a sentence? Does it add weight? If it does, use it. If it does not, and is just filler for a vague and unspecific image, remove it.

The vagueness of writing is often more problematic than the word choice. It is the vagueness that creates traps. And some of the writing advice floating around puts padlocks on the traps. Such as this advice about adjectives.

Maxinquaye said:

Many writers abuse adjectives because they haven't mastered the art of being specific enough in their choice of verbs and nouns. Therefore someone once told a writer to cut the needless adjectives, and that snowballed into being an inmutable rule that all writers must follow always.

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I'm forever slipping into vagueness and that's usually where I have to cut adjectives. It's always an underlying problem.

It's also almost never a writing problem, and so therefore not a writing rule per se. It's editing and revision.

Maxinquaye said:

The good rule is: does the adjective add clarity to a sentence? Does it add weight? If it does, use it. If it does not, and is just filler for a vague and unspecific image, remove it.

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Well, assuming a given sentence needs weight. I like the way you phrased it as being about clarity. Sometimes we need it for pacing, phrasing, or significance. Random setting? Probably not, and too many adjectives there are going to feel bloated much more quickly because they have no significance.

Maxinquaye said:

The vagueness of writing is often more problematic than the word choice. It is the vagueness that creates traps. And some of the writing advice floating around puts padlocks on the traps. Such as this advice about adjectives.

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Oh yeah, that's me. Mostly just wanted to quote this because it's an awesome post and now I can highlight some of the awesome parts of it.

When I started writing in grade 11 my teacher was forever on my case about vagueness. I still think she's the best writing mentor I've ever had. She gave us blank lists and told us to write down every mistake we could find in our own work and then fix them. Vagueness came up a lot on mine.