Writing Rx and Overdose (2)

“Free writing advice is appropriately priced.”


The following 10 rules are widely accepted, but should be taken with caution. These “powerful drugs” can benefit you—but only if they address your particular malady. Warning: all medicines are potential poisons, and the side effects may outweigh the benefits.

Please take writing advice (including mine) as you would medicine—only as needed.

Remember what golf pro Harvey Pennick says, “. . . tips are like aspirin. One may do you good, but if you swallow the whole bottle you will be lucky to survive.”

TEN RULES

The Rules 3 through 6 (Prose rules)

3 Avoid using adjectives, except those of color, size and number.
4 Avoid detailed descriptions of characters, places, or things.
5 Never use the word "suddenly"
6 Avoid using adverbs.

The intent of these prose rules is to get to the meat, but the danger is that you will strip away too much and leave the reader with only a tasteless bare bone. I get it that you should convey the thought or action quickly and without unnecessary elaboration. I get it also that you should not be wordy. However, descriptors are the spice of the dish. The key is to not overwhelm the essence by using too much spice.


So let's take a look at these four rules.

Rule #3 : Avoid using adjectives, except those of color, size and number.

Reverting to our pharmaceutical metaphor, this is just plain bad medicine. It is a low-dose poison.


A few examples demonstrate that this rule is worse than useless.

“Gothic cathedral” “faint praise” “holistic approach” “insidious attempt” “cyber attack” All these are obviously useful and appropriate. They do not add useless detail.

Rule #4 : Avoid detailed descriptions of characters, places, or things.

The justification for an economy of words is that “brevity is the soul of wit.” But prose is not a collection of witty sayings. It is “prosaic,” but need not be stripped of poetic beauty. The "beauty" comes from accurate description that sets mood or provides quick and necessary information.

For example, describing the hollow sound of footsteps on a marble staircase in the courthouse might enhance the mood of fearful anticipation when a character is about to enter the courtroom.

On the other hand, describing a flock of geese launching themselves from the glassy surface of a pond might add nothing to the mood of a person driving to the courthouse.

Avoid making a description an extended aside. Instead, incorporate descriptions in a way that is "invisible" to the reader. Instead of stopping the action to list all the attributes of the character’s features, appearance, and dress, distribute the descriptors within the action.

To sum up, take a dose of this medicine as needed to remove yourself from the reader’s awareness and keep him inside the scene.

The side effects of an overdose of this drug are generic characters, places, and things along with tepid and bland description. Worse, by not painting an adequate picture, you may fail to tap into the experience and memory the reader brings to the story.

Rule #5 : Never use “suddenly.

Let’s substitute a little weaker medicine for this one: Use “suddenly” sparingly.

If you use “suddenly” more than a few times in a novel, or more than once in a short story, it is a symptom that your writing may be ill—but probably not fatally so.

Rule #6 : Avoid using adverbs.

This is the most abused medicine in the pharmacopeia.

It is prescribed to shorten, simplify, and “clean up” the action. However, removing every word ending in –ly doesn't perfect badly-written prose. It deadens it. Like all descriptors, the adverb focuses and colors actions.

(Do try, however, to remove all adverbs that modify other adverbs.)

Let’s look at a random sentence with and without adverbs.

"In stocking feet, he went to the fireplace and quietly fed kindling to awaken the nearly dead embers."

"In stocking feet, he went to the fireplace and fed kindling to awaken the embers."

Whether you prefer the first or second is a matter of taste, but which tells you more? Do the adverbs enhance or detract from the passage?



To sum up: like words, parts of speech are tools of thought and communication. To change metaphors, they are like the colors, brushes, thinner, and oils of an artist’s palette. Descriptors are pigments used to tint and amend the colors an artist applies as he paints the picture he imagines.

Why would any artist deprive himself of a pigment? Writing with no descriptors is like painting with only primary colors.