I recently talked about adverbs as an important part of writing. If verbs are the action – the core of our stories and articles – and nouns are the characters, adjectives are the color and style.
An adjective is, quite simply, a descriptive word. In some circles, adjectives are as badly maligned as adverbs. “Flowery” prose (never a compliment) uses too many adjectives. But a well-placed adjective paints a picture. It’s the difference between “a man,” and “old man,” and a “young man.” (That’s quite a difference there, right?)
If not for adjectives, we’d never have “blue skies, fluffy white clouds and sun-drenched beaches with soft sand.” That’s reason alone to revere adjectives.
Is Another Word Better?
Just like adverbs, though, adjectives can be overused. When you’re tempted to use an adjective in your writing, I’d urge you to determine if a noun or verb might work better.
For instance, which example paints a more vivid picture?
She has expensive taste.
A Tiffany bracelet hung from the wrist of the same hand that grasped a Gucci clutch.
Both tell us the same thing. This woman likes the finer things. But we can visualize the second example.
Of course, the second example also uses more words to convey this idea. So much for brevity. But you’re giving the reader so much more with those extra 12 words in the second sentence, it’s worth the trade-off. Many writers find that showing v. telling (I’ll share more on that later…) often does lead to longer works. But it’s about the power and the value in each word.
And the perfect adjective, many times, can provide that value in a concise package. If you’ve ever played Mad Libs, you know the humorous power a well-placed and adequately silly adjective can have on a story.
