Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related Craft: Adverb and Adjectives

Schoolmarm wrote:

Bigger, yes. But I'm not sure "better" (as the saying goes ) necessarily applies. I'm really learning a ton as my novel is going through the editing process right now (Labby, can I just say I love you as an EIC after starting this process? ), but I'll tell ya, LNC fanfiction will always be my first love. And I can't WAIT to return to it! )

It was interesting and informative discussions like this one that started me on the path to honing my craft (so thanks for posting this, Marilyn! I enjoyed reading it!), but I certainly have a long way to go before I can consider my craft honed. To be honest, I still feel humbled (and often intimidated!) by all you talented writers around these parts. Sure, I may have gotten lucky enough to get a toe in the door, but you guys can still write rings around ME. :p

Back to lurking and reading and trying to learn as much as I can from you talented writers...

Wow, I'm surprised so many people think "behemoth" is a mostly unknown word. I know I've read it several times, and heard it plenty. However, for some odd reason, I always thought it was spelled "bohemoth", and had to run to dictionary.com to be sure!

I do have to agree with the article. Clear, concise sentences work better than long drawn out ones. They may be trying to draw the image, but sometimes the author draws a little too much.

I was watching a documentary show on the PBS channel about the Medal of Honor Museum in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The host of the show was standing beside a tank and guess what word he used to describe it? Yep, that's right. Behemoth! I'm sure my husband thought I was nuts for laughing.

That's too funny, Marilyn. Why does it seem that whenever I learn a new word, all of the sudden I hear that word *everywhere*?!! (Well, in this case it's not "new", but certainly "rare" - for me, that is. Now I'm sure everywhere I go, I'll be hearing this word!)

- Vicki

I hope nobody minds if I revisit this thread. I just happened to be discussing some writing-related questions with a friend and colleague who has recently published her second novel, Ophelia's Revenge. Among other things, such as the use of ?! for punctuation, we discussed the use of adverbs of manner. And her comment was, "It's out of style now, has been since the thirties. If you tried to get something published with very many, you'd probably never even get an agent."

As for ?! (and I've used it many a time myself) a closer look in the grammar books reveals that the proper punctuation for an exclamatory question is the exclamation point, i.e. Clark gasped. "What!" The interrogative word shows that it's a question; the exclamation point shows the tone of voice and mood of the speaker.

Schoolmarm

Thanks, Schoolmarm! Next time I send a manuscript to a publisher, I'll keep that in mind

PJ

This is a fascinating topic, indeed. I'm going to side with the notion that adverbs and adjectives are useful when you're a novice to a language because there is a limited number you need to know. Then you can modify all sorts of nouns and verbs. English is unique in that it absorbs words at a much faster rate than seemingly any other language, while rarely discarding any. The English language has 25,000 to 30,000 more words than either French or German. Why? English actually has more nuanced words that mean almost the same thing as another word but that have particularized usages. Let's pick a not so randomly chosen verb from this paragraph and analyze it. Consider if you will, all the different ways in English you can convey the concept of 'to discard:'

-expel
-exorcise
-give up
-get rid of
-chuck
-toss
-dispose of
-throw out
-trash
-extirpate
-expunge
-delete
-junk
-scrap
-throw away
-relinquish
-reject
-cast off
-cast aside
-cast away
-forsake
-desert
-part with
-do away with
-dispense with
-shed
-repudiate
-dispatch
-dispossess
-shake off
-free oneself of
-drop
-wash one's hands of
-abandon
-renounce
-and of course, defenstrate (but only if you discard it out a window).

Each of these words or phrasal verbs has a specific meaning and fits particular situations. You might use 'excise' if you want to say that something was removed in a precise and clinical manner. You might use 'extirpate' if the thing is ripped out in a visceral fashion. You might use 'expel' if you want to convey that the thing has been forced out, never to return again. And that's just using three of the regular verbs that all start with 'ex.' When you start using other parts of the alphabet and all of those phrasal verbs, man, that's a lot to keep straight when all you're trying to do is figure out how to describe the way Clark took out the trash in a language other than your native tongue .

Yes, using these fancy verbs makes descriptions come to life. That is the beauty of the English language. Few languages can compete with its complexity. One word can evoke a specific sentiment or situation. Complicated thoughts, impossible to express with sentences, are boiled down to one word, understood by all, although they are hard pressed to define it.

Indeed, the over-reliance upon adverbs and adjectives can bankrupt the language and dispossess it of its depth. Adverbs and adjectives can be crutches for weak vocabularies. Crutches, of course, must be abandoned. These parts of speech, however, are commonplace in spoken English and we shouldn't forget this and dispense with them. Not too many people use 'extirpate' in their daily conversations. Whether in anger or in boredom, we're more likely to threaten to toss one out on their rear or offer to take out the trash than we are to threaten defenstration or promise to dispatch the refuse. Dialogue is informal and we should cast off notions that suggest we 'dress it up' and make our characters sound more erudite (read: longwinded). So should we give up? Should we repudiate the entire project? I reject such notions. If you want to excise the adjectives and adverbs from your descriptions, fine, but don't throw the baby out with the bathwater and eliminate them outright. You'll run the risk of relinquishing an important tool as a writer and create stiff and formal dialogue that ought to be chucked.

Class dismissed

Rac

That's what works for the Greek language too, Rac. Greek has two times as many words as English has, four if you count the different forms verbs, nouns, pronouns, adjectives and articles can take depending on gender, case, mood and so on. But in spoken language less than the half of all these words are in use. If someone heard two teens talk about an everyday topic, they'd think 'oh, what a poor vcabulary they have!'.

And, being the one that pointed out the problem the non-native speakers have, seeing a fic written with all sort of literature words you can find makes me have mixed feelings: admiration for the writer, jealousy because I could never write like this, and annoyance because I have to check the dictionary every once in a while. (Gladly, I never needed to stop reading a fic because the language was so difficult for me.)

AnnaBtG.