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Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Editing Frenzy: Prompt eleven: The adjective and their noums


That's when we delete the epithet adjectives, all of them 'cause they are useless... 

THE END.

Nah, just kidding. But it seems that adjectives are as hated as -ly adverbs. And, I still don't know why. Anyway, we need to take care of them. Let's do it efficiently and not be too barbaric about it! So we need to have a look at the noun they are qualifying. 

If you don't have a clue what I'm talking about just let me know because apparently some people *cough* writers *cough* don't have the grammar skills of elementary school French kids. Nothing wrong about that French kids are awesome and you can still learn. 

Start with spotting an epithet adjective, ask yourself one question. Does it give something to the noun next to it? Mostly, is it giving anything new to the picture? Or is it totally redundant and vague?

If yes, you're a winner, move to the next. 
If no, figure out what's wrong with it and change it.



Here are some examples:

The deep ocean. If you are not on the shore the ocean has to be deep or maybe it's a lake.
The pretty face. Hum, what makes it pretty?
The thick jungle, the deep forest. I personally never saw them any different. 
The tall building. Compared to what kind of building?

If you are describing something make sure that the reader can see the complete picture in your head, it's not as if they are standing next to you looking at it too.

On another note: An image starts in the writer's mind and finishes in the reader's mind. Don't spoon-feed them with so much details that they want to pull their brain's out because it doesn't have anything to do, boring. Give them the juicy steak caramelised on the side that they can cut with their own knife, no need to chew it before serving.

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