Adjectives (1 Viewer)

[lilkiwifruit]

I don't know if this has been asked before but today my teacher has announced that she will only let us have one adjective per page... I'm so "emotionally" attached to what I've written so far that its really difficult to edit through and delete all the unnecessary words, so how do you guys do it? Any tips on how to write a short story without adjectives?

 

[ScottyG]

What?!

One adjective per page. ONE adjective per page. Either that's a typo or your teacher is on lithium.

 

[orange_blob]

I pressume that this is just to get a basic draft completed without cluttering it with fancy writing and description. Not a bad idea in my opinion, but yes very difficult.

I don't think you should go through and remove the adjectives though, that seems rather pointless. This would only really work if you did this from the beginning, but would also be incredibly boring to write.

Does your teacher realise that you've already been writing?

Otherwise just a very detailed dot point plan would have the same affect.

 

[ScottyG]

But really, a story without adjectives will lack the depth of story's that use them (assuming the writer does not over-qualify and uses adjectives selectively)

 

[lilkiwifruit]

What?!

One adjective per page. ONE adjective per page. Either that's a typo or your teacher is on lithium.

yup..my teacher is a bit crazy lol

 

[Asheroth]

Looks like she subscribes to the Mark Twain school of thought - if you see an adjective, kill it.

I think it might just be an exercise to get you to be sparing with your use of adjectives. Seems a bit silly though; if you're going to limit something, limit adverbs. Mostly they're used when your verb isn't quite right and you need to modify it somehow.

 

[ScottyG]

Ok, now killing adverbs I can agree with, I think the instances of people doing this:

"That's amazing!" exclaimed Michelle happily.
"I know, isn't it?!" replied Gordron excitedly.
"But... how far will it take you?" Michelle asked imploringly.
"No idea" stated Jim, who strode over quickly to investigate.

Adverbs, more often than not people, are the enemy. A lot of writers who feel they need to show their intelligence, or articifically lift the sophistication of their story through the elimination of all 'simple' words, are the main culprits of this. Sophistication is often built more through structure, voice and the careful choice of complex words than countless adverbs and 10-character long adjectives.

But as for the elimination of all adjectives, that's just foolish. It constricts anyone with a descriptive writing style like me, and I don't believe thats what EX2 is about.

 

[goldendawn]

I agree -

Adverbs are the spawn of satan, but adjective are like friends - it's good to catch up with them a couple of times every week, but living with them 24/7 would be VERY frustrating.