"Show, don't tell." A few years ago, I completed a creative writing seminar at university, and that is the one piece of advice that was burned into my brain. It is so tempting to "tell" readers how to perceive your characters, or how the action of your story is progressing; it is much more difficult to "show" them.
The use of adjectives, and adverbs even more so, is intimately linked to the “telling” of a story. How did he ask her? *Desperately*. How did she walk? *Casually*. It takes a little more effort on the writer’s part to think of strong verbs that could replace lazy adverbs. *He pleaded*. *She sauntered*. It requires still more effort, and perhaps a little ingenuity, to effectively "show" readers “the tired child” using physical detail, …show more content…
There’s even an editing app that aims to help you make your writing more concise by exposing the “layer of fatty, adjectival froth” on which you may be depending (Asimov, 1974: 179). The Hemingway application, inspired by the writer’s famously blunt and economical style, highlights and suggests the removal of adverbs and the passive voice, as well as long and complex sentences or phrases. It grades the “readability” of your prose.
But is it always necessary to simplify your writing? I recently read Perdido Street Station by China Miéville – a book so full of adverbs, adjectives and long, obscure words, that I actually had to pick up a dictionary a few times while reading. At first, the verbosity and proliferation of flowery language was off-putting; the book felt overwritten. But as I read on, I realised that this is essential to Miéville’s style – a style which will not be to everyone’s taste, but which I came to appreciate.
Although I agree that adverbs and adjectives should be used with caution, it seems presumptuous to me to outlaw the use of entire word classes and to dictate rules for such a creative and personal endeavour as writing, which is followed by the similarly personal and imaginative process of
The use of adjectives, and adverbs even more so, is intimately linked to the “telling” of a story. How did he ask her? *Desperately*. How did she walk? *Casually*. It takes a little more effort on the writer’s part to think of strong verbs that could replace lazy adverbs. *He pleaded*. *She sauntered*. It requires still more effort, and perhaps a little ingenuity, to effectively "show" readers “the tired child” using physical detail, …show more content…
There’s even an editing app that aims to help you make your writing more concise by exposing the “layer of fatty, adjectival froth” on which you may be depending (Asimov, 1974: 179). The Hemingway application, inspired by the writer’s famously blunt and economical style, highlights and suggests the removal of adverbs and the passive voice, as well as long and complex sentences or phrases. It grades the “readability” of your prose.
But is it always necessary to simplify your writing? I recently read Perdido Street Station by China Miéville – a book so full of adverbs, adjectives and long, obscure words, that I actually had to pick up a dictionary a few times while reading. At first, the verbosity and proliferation of flowery language was off-putting; the book felt overwritten. But as I read on, I realised that this is essential to Miéville’s style – a style which will not be to everyone’s taste, but which I came to appreciate.
Although I agree that adverbs and adjectives should be used with caution, it seems presumptuous to me to outlaw the use of entire word classes and to dictate rules for such a creative and personal endeavour as writing, which is followed by the similarly personal and imaginative process of