The Writers Guide To Writing

Adjectives

Adjectives, by definition, are words used to describe an object/person/place such as: beautiful, ugly, tall, round etc.

A lot of writers (including the younger version of me) tend to be guilty of one very big thing. Taking a simple and concise adjective and running to a thesaurus.

Stop.

Do these steps first:

1) does your character/narrator say this word too much?

If yes, proceed to thesaurus, if not, it's okay to use it for now.

2) are you trying to use bigger words to make your writing seem better?

If yes, then stop, sometimes simple is better, if not, then proceed with caution

3) are you sure that this new word you want to use instead has the same meaning as the first one?

If yes, then put it in, if not, slam your foot on the brake and reverse.

Sometimes what will end up happening is that, you pick a new word that sounds great and fancy that you totally can't pronounce... and no one knows what it means. This especially goes for those of you (the majority of wattpad) that are writing for a teen/young adult audience.

Our teachers are so very wrong, using different words (especially using them often) can end up making your writing worse because we have these silly things in the English language called 'connotations'. These are words that mean the same thing but have a different connotation (ie positive, negative or neutral vibe) for example

"The cottage in the forest" Sounds a lot nicer than "the cabin in the woods". Now obviously this is a small example but the more extravagant the word you use, the more likely it is that it won't make sense in the same context.

Be careful when using new words, always check the meaning of that word or ask someone else if it makes sense, you can even ask me. Don't fall into the trap of thinking more extravagant words lead to better writing, 9/10 it will lead to confusion or disrupt the flow. Remember : Readability is KEY.

Feel free to ask me if you don't know what a word means or if you can use it in a certain sentence.

Hope this helps

Love, Orange

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