Why You Should Kill Adjectives

We’re taught at school that adjectives are good; that they enrich your writing and help make images. And that’s the truth. If you use adjectives in the right (write?) way, they can help you.

For example, I saw a first sentence of someone that went a bit like this: She twirled her long blonde hair on her tanned finger and popped her pink bubble gum.

Problems? There are way too many adjectives. This is what using too many adjectives does:

1)      Slows down your writing. If your readers are trying to get through 500000 adjectives, they’re not going to get into the actual story.

2)      Tells and doesn’t show. I’ve ranted about showing not telling before, because it really is one of the most important things I can say. Instead of using any old adjective, SHOW us the scene. Involve your reader.

3)      Make you (the writer) seem lazy. Often adjectives are only approximations; you can’t really get a good glimpse of a scene through lists of adjectives alone. Words like “amazing” and “wonderful” are even worse because they’re such broad terms.

So let’s change that sentence above.

She twirled her hair and stared at the ceiling, wondering if you could die from boredom. Probably not, she thought as she popped her bubble gum. She wouldn’t be that lucky.

Already, you can see that removing the adjectives has done a great deal. You can glimpse this girl’s character more and imagine the scene much better. It flows.

Another thing. You know those beautiful scenes, comprised entirely of brilliant prose and magnificent adjectives? Cut them. Let’s face it: nobody wants to read for three pages about a garden or a sunset, and you shouldn’t make them. It may be good writing, but people don’t want to read good writing; they want to be told a story.

So, things to avoid:

1)      A string of adjectives in a row (his faded yellow old ugly horrible shirt)

2)      Redundant adjectives (big mountain)

3)      Non-specific adjectives (wonderful, beautiful, amazing etc.)

Look through your work. Find some adjectives and kill them. With fire!!

Here’s a quote from Mark Twain to help you on your way: When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don't mean utterly, but kill most of them - then the rest will be valuable. They weaken when they are close together. They give strength when they are wide apart. An adjective habit, or a wordy, diffuse, flowery habit, once fastened upon a person, is as hard to get rid of as any other vice.