Crutch Week Day Two: Don’t be wasteful. Only use hardworking words.

Yesterday we began talking about adjectivitis. Today we’re going to look at some of the reasons an adjective might not work.

• It’s unnecessary

Do your readers need to know your character is wearing a creased white linen shirt from Gucci? Sometimes the answer is “yes”. Maybe he buys couture because you’re demonstrating his wealth. Maybe it’s creased because you want to demonstrate his carelessness. Maybe the creases will eventually help the police to identify him as a bloody murderer! You need to test your adjectives before you trust them. If that white couture is irrelevant, it needs to go. Just because your character is wearing a blue felt hat, doesn’t mean any of those describing words have a purpose. Every word you use must work hard for its place in your text.

• It’s redundant

We see redundant adjectives often because even the best writers use them. Here are some examples:

Unanticipated surprise
Closed fist
Sufficiently adequate
Repeated recurrence
Overused cliché.

All cliches are overused. All fists are closed. All surprises are unanticipated. The adjectives and nouns in that list mean the same thing, so they add clutter to your text. I’ll say it again. Your. Words. Must. Work. Hard.

• It’s lazy

Adjectives aren’t all made equal. Some, like beautiful, huge, or rich, are abstract and overused. When you read them, they don’t give you a clear visual or emotion. You’ve got to test your adjectives to make sure they’re strong and visual enough to earn their place.

• It doesn’t sound like its meaning.

Most people in my country speak at least two languages. We’ve learned that some foreign words just sound “right” so we’ve developed a tendency to use more than one language when we speak. No English word can do the work of “kak”, “ubuntu”, or “poppie”. Those who speak first-language Afrikaans or Xhosa have found that some English words have no replacement either. The sound and meaning of words matters, so when you choose an adjective, make sure it has oomph. Is it big? No. It’s fucking gargantuan.

Imagine that every word you use weighs a pound. Imagine you’ve got to carry your short story or poem through miles of desert. How are you going to make sure you can lift your knapsack and carry it through the Sahara?

By choosing well. That’s how. Don’t be wasteful. Only use hardworking words.

Exercise

Haul out an old piece of writing. Put it into a Word document. Highlight all the adjectives. Marvel at how many there are, beat yourself black and blue, then do a rewrite that replaces lazy words with hardworking words. Then post both drafts for feedback.