I’m dissecting the article Hunting Down the Pleonasm, by Allen Guthrie, using it as a cattle prod to search for little nasties in my manuscript. Yep, you can join in the fun, too. Let’s take a looksee at topic #4
4: Cut adjectives where possible. See rule 3 (for ‘verb’ read ‘noun’).
Ha! Since I posed it last week, let me do a little cut and paste for you.
3: Use strong nouns in preference to adjectives. I won’t say avoid adjectives, period, because about once every fifty pages they’re okay! What’s not okay is to use an adjectives as an excuse for failing to find the correct noun.
Hmmm. No adjectives? As in NONE? I’m not sure I agree with this, although I have caught myself using TOO MANY from time to time. I mean, you need to describe stuff, right?
Strong nouns? I think maybe he should have re-thought that. I can understand not saying: “The angry dog barked”
What should be said is “The dog lowered his head, baring teeth. His bark echoed through the room”
The second angry dog is much more menacing, and I didn’t use any adjectives. I think he may just be talking about the whole show verses tell issue, because you’re gonna have to describe a few things sooner or later, right?
Open discussion time! What have you found with your writing and adjectives? What do you think Allen Gutrie’s point is? Where do you think adjectives are necessary?
Related articles
- Parts of Speech at Work (mcriscam.wordpress.com)
- Nouns as Adjective (espikipbojonegoro3c.wordpress.com)
- Module 1 Writing Activity: my nouns and adjectives (zsuzsicursos.wordpress.com)
- Crafting an Effective Writer: Tools of the Trade You (blackcolumbus.wordpress.com)
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Or so Winn Thomas always thought. Since being accepted into the fold of the supernatural, he knows better. None of what he imagined is true, but everything he feared is, and binding himself to his Changeling girlfriend until her nineteenth birthday will give him an education far beyond what he’d get at his human high school.
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*The Little Blue Lady from Mars Copyright Jennifer M. Eaton
You are going to shove me into your hard drive and never look at me again.
No, I’m not!
They are more important than me?
First of all, Congrats to last week’s winner: 
I’m starting to enjoy this. I’m really looking forward to this week’s interview!
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he war (Civil, that is) is over, Sanderson is home, and life is good. Until the Army comes knocking. They’ve charged Sanderson with murder and unless he can track down the notorious outlaw William “Bloody Bill” Quantrill, he’ll face the hangman’s noose. Meanwhile, Charlotte is left in Minerva’s capable hands to endure a complicated pregnancy before battling a rash of hydrophobee that threatens the countryside; Cotton, Achilles, and Sanderson included.
First of all,
Jennifer M Eaton 