Adjectives are allegedly bad - examples?

[Bella Donna]

It isn't just for effect, though, is it? Unless your POV character (or all of them, when you have multiple POVs) are all bang up-to-date with their language and thinking**, or you're using a rather distant or omniscient 3rd person (which isn't at all modern, as I understand it) you are bound to have some narrative voices that are comparatively old-fashioned.

True, but I struggle to think of a way to fit the example given in the first post for such a scenario. I mean, do people really think in purple prose? They might, for all I know...

I'm sure a POV character based on me would be; even someone in their thirties may be using words no longer thought of as "relevant" to, say, a twenty-two year old. (And that's without admitting the existence of young fogeys.)

By the way, I'm thinking of novel-length works; you may be thinking of short stories given your comment in the Discuss the 75-word Challenge thread.

Methinks thou wouldst find it most troublesome to fit many viewpoints into a 75 word tale, though I suppose it may be done.

 

[The Ace]

I do know that people who repeat adjectives should be shot at dawn.


THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE HAS SUPERLATIVES, PEOPLE!!!

 

[Ursa major]

True, but I struggle to think of a way to fit the example given in the first post for such a scenario. I mean, do people really think in purple prose? They might, for all I know....

There's purplish prose and then there's bad prose. I would accept in-character snippets of the former but would be less forgiving of the latter.

(Having said that, some books have had POV characters whose prose is far from text-book**, but I wouldn't want to write a book of that sort, if only because it sounds like an awful lot of work to get it "right".)

I think this is a similar problem to that with dialogue in dialect: I, personally, don't mind the odd reminder that a character is speaking in a dialect, but I wouldn't want it to overwhelm everything else, such as meaning. Some, more experimental and/or brave, authors may go the whole hog, asking the reader to put in the work to find out what was being said.

Methinks thou wouldst find it most troublesome to fit many viewpoints into a 75 word tale, though I suppose it may be done.

I've had two in a 75-word story (topic: Time): http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/1418557-post40.html. I'll admit that there was little scope for POV characterisation (or if there was, I didn't take advantage of it ).



** - POV characters with mental-health problems; POV characters who are very young children.

 

[Bella Donna]

Don't we use them all the time, though? Best, tallest, shortest, etc. Those are superlatives, if I remember my grammar lessons correctly.

 

[Bella Donna]

There's purplish prose and then there's bad prose. I would accept in-character snippets of the former but would be less forgiving of the latter.

Agreed.

(Having said that, some books have had POV characters whose prose is far from text-book, but I wouldn't want to write a book of that sort, if only because it sounds like an awful lot of work to get it "right".)

You're right. And people don't tend to be "textbook" in the way they speak, anyway. There has to be some wiggle-room.

I think this is a similar problem to that with dialogue in dialect: I, personally, don't mind the odd reminder that a character is speaking in a dialect, but I wouldn't want it to overwhelm everything else, such as meaning. Some, more experimental and/or brave, authors may go the whole hog, asking the reader to put in the work to find out what was being said.

I'm with you there, too. Sometimes less is more, but a bit of dialect can enhance a story by "placing" the character, e.g.

"Stop mithering," said Jim, his mouth turned down at the corners.

"What?" asked Grainne.

"What do you mean, 'What?'"

"What does 'Mither' mean, Jim? There doesn't be a word like that in the English I learned in Carragheen National School."

"It's Manc slang for 'bother,'" he replied in his grumpiest tones. "And what do you mean by 'There doesn't be?' Did you learn that in Carragheen National School?'"

Grainne blushed. "It's just the way we talk back home."

 

[steve100]

Shame I didn't pick up on the perils of using too many adjectives and adverbs for my trilogy series. The idea of going through it 'just one more time' deflates me beyond words.

Oh well, at least my next book project is aimed at 4 - 6 year olds (should be quite safe there, lol).

Steve