Adjectives and Adverbs
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Adjectives are words that modify nouns. A noun is a general person, place, thing or idea; an adjective makes that noun specific. Instead of a car, we have a rusty car. Instead of a drunk, we have a pathetic drunk.

Adverbs are words that modify verbs. They further describe the action of the verb. Instead of walking, we walk slowly or quickly or briskly.

There is no greater indication of amateur writing than a dependence on adjectives and adverbs. Powerful writing depends on vivid, illustrative language. Beginning writers believe this power comes from adjectives and adverbs, but if you examine many of your favorite works, you will discover that the writer used fewer modifiers than you remember.

Why? Because as a reader, you're supplying the adjectives and adverbs based upon the descriptive nouns and verbs on the page. You're connecting with the text and adding details from your own imagination.

This is a good thing. You and the writer are working together to create a shared vision. The writer provides the framework to which you add your imagination. If the writer described too much using modifiers, you couldn't connect as strongly with the work. You couldn't add your own details.

To increase readers' experiences while reading your work, leave enough unsaid so they can invest their own imaginations.

In moderation, adjectives and adverbs have their use. In most cases, however, they are leeches sucking the life from your writing.

Remember:

• A descriptive verb is almost always stronger than any adverb.
• A descriptive noun is almost always stronger than any adjective.
• A string of adjectives or adverbs slows down readers and weakens your writing.

Refer to the following guidelines when using adjectives and adverbs:

• If you find a list of more than one adjective or adverb in your work, remove all but the most descriptive one.
• Replace adjectives and adverbs with more powerful nouns and verbs.
• Replace adjectives and adverbs with more descriptive and unusual ones.
• Use metaphors and similes instead of modifiers for clear description.
• Make a list of adjectives and adverbs you use frequently and look for them in your work.
• Avoid adjectives and adverbs that denote judgement unless a character or narrator is using them.

Like any rule, there are exceptions to be made. There are many cases when adjectives and adverbs are useful. Don't eliminate modifiers from your writing; just be sure every time you use them they're the best word for the job.

If you find a list of more than one adjective or adverb in your work, remove all but the most descriptive one.

Writers sometimes use long strings of adjectives to appear descriptively lyrical:

We walked doggedly down the long, circuitious road through the lush, verdant flora of our hometown.

If you find that you must use modifiers, use only one at a time:

We plodded down the tree-lined road that meandered through our hometown.

Use an adjective or adverb like the focus on a camera: use one in a sentence to accentuate the one thing you want the reader to notice. Don't describe a woman's red dress unless the fact that it is red means something about her.

Replace adjectives and adverbs with more powerful nouns and verbs.

Even better yet, remove adjectives and adverbs from your writing whenever possible and replace them with stronger nouns and verbs. Pretend every modifier is a recently paroled career criminal asking for a gun permit; chances are, he's looking for trouble.

Before: She slowly walked toward us.
After: She shambled/staggered/stumbled/plodded/stepped toward us.

For even stronger writing, turn an adjective into a verb phrase:

Before: Dad was tall.
After: Dad towered over even the tallest adults; as a kid, I was barely visible to him.

Before: Suddenly, I saw a bright light.
After: The light of a miniature sun burned my cornea like a hot poker.

This, like any other technique, can be overdone. The point is to question every adverb and adjective in your writing and justify its existence.

Replace adjectives and adverbs with more descriptive and unusual ones.

It isn't hot; it's searing. You aren't wet; you're soaked or drenched or engorged with water. For every adjective or adverb you hear each day, there are more descriptive and memorable alternatives.

Of course, you can coil this guideline into a noose. You can start writing things like:

Mother strangled the wheel of the car.

Be reasonable. Look for unusual terms, but not terms that are so unusual that your readers resent you for trying to impress them or sending them to the dictionary.

Use metaphors and similes instead of modifiers for clear description.

An unusual metaphor or simile helps make description more vivid:

Before: It was steaming hot outside.
After: It was as hot as the inside of Satan's colon.

Before: She wasn't very attractive.
After: If Ebola evolved into a human being, she would look like the woman standing before me.

Be careful not to use the first metaphor or simile that comes to mind while writing: it is often a cliche.

It was as hot as Hell outside.

Make a list of adjectives and adverbs you use frequently and look for them in your work.

Certain words wear paths in our brains from frequent use. Like the grooves in a dirt road, they guide future traffic into the same direction and you find yourself using the same terms over and over again.

In my own writing, I'm alarmed to notice that the words slowly, carefully, probably, finally, and great come up all too frequently. I've created a list of words that I have now banned from my writing due to overuse.

Find the words that you use too often and eliminate them from your work.

Common adjectives and adverbs that are overused include:

very, about, usually, strange, beautiful, handsome, slowly, suddenly, tall, short, big, little, fat, thin, dark, light

Why say someone is beautiful when you can tell the reader why?

Avoid adjectives and adverbs that denote judgement unless a character or narrator is using them.

It isn't enough to tell a reader that a character is strange. How is he or she strange? Strange looking? Strange behavior? Strange background?

Lovecraft, who I love dearly and who nudged me into trying my hand at professional writing, was the greatest practitioner of the adjective that doesn't quite describe anything. The minions of Cthulhu he describes as unknowable, eldritch, unspeakable things leave an audience wondering what he's trying to describe.

Some have said that such words empower the reader to insert what he or she considers eldritch or unspeakable and connect more solidly with the work. That is effective in small doses. Without a frame of reference, such words open so many possibilities that you are bound to disappoint your reader. If you call your monster eldritch in the first section and then at the end describe it in detail, your reader may think, "That's not what I was thinking of as eldritch."

Be specific. If you want to be atmospheric, that's fine; provide something onto which your readers can hold, though.