Agitating Adjectives
The sun is shining and the air is clear, or is it a dark
stormy night? I know they’re clichés but they paint the picture and give the
scene atmosphere. The weather is important for all authors as a useful tool to
present the right ambience of the book. Setting the mood is difficult without
the weather.
As you probably already know, I am setting my current novel
inside a high security wing, in prison, where there is no weather. There is
however a spooky feel to the institution, cold and drafty corridors etc... So
again, describing the feel of the scene is important, but how much detail do you give the
atmosphere? I’ve read some books where the author has taken pages upon pages of
adjectives and verbs mixed together to ensure we understand what situation the
characters are in. Other authors like to give a little description, not much,
so as to let our imagination do the rest of the work. It’s not a bad thing
either way, it just depends on your style of writing and your target audience.
Different people respond in a variety of ways to the descriptions they read. To
some, they will read a little, but anymore than that and they’ll put the book
down. Others will read the little they are provided with and then complain that
they haven’t been given enough to feed their imagination. Also, how much does
your story rely on the atmosphere? A ghost story usually relies heavily on
adjectives, (You can’t see ghosts, duh) where as a historical battle would rest
solely on the action present at the time.
Different genres, writing styles, narration and even
audience can determine how many and what type of adjectives and verbs are
written into a novel. What are your thoughts on the subject? How much is too
much? When is your imagination not fed enough when reading?
Read, follow, comment and enjoy. M x
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