Le Guin's Steering The Craft, Chapter Five: Adjectives and Adverbs (exercise to come later)

The issue of adjectives and adverbs comes up whenever discussing writing, it seems.  Their is, I think, good reason for this, not merely in that they are words and thus essential building blocks of language, but also because of their nature.  As descriptives used to modify more essential words in a sentence, they are always extraneous to the actual function.  They can always be trimmed, and beyond this, are often used to bolster weak word choices.  In poetry, it is also pointed out that adverbs are most all metrically weak as well, in that the "-ly" suffix at the end is an unstressed syllable.  Of course, great writers in all modes still use both parts of speech, and most would likely acknowledge them as significant tools for communication, but it is ironic to consider how the power of their usage is diminished when they are over applied.  When the right adjective or adverb comes into play, it can be magical, but that requires it to be something special, and that means that these words are to be used sparingly, like a fine and pungent spice.

Le Guin covers this ground and more, pointing out how overuse of specific words has made them little more than grunts that pause the language.  She discusses how the use in prose needs to be, once more, subtler than in poetry, though she acknowledges that not every prose writer adheres to that consideration.  Again, it is her concern for the flow of the narrative that is evoked, as she says that the unexpected and thought provoking use of a descriptor can take the reader away from the moment.  I can understand her point, that it can make the reader acutely aware of the book as a writer artifact, but I think that may be a skid that I often enjoy steering into as opposed to avoiding.  But, I do agree, largely, that the adverb and adjective, however used, must be handled with care and administered with some degree of caution if not wisdom.

The exercise, once more, is built upon learning by delimitation.  As with the earlier exercise that ruled out punctuation, here we are asked to remove all adjectives and adverbs from our lexicon while writing a descriptive passage.  I will admit that I am scared I may well slip up.  In all honesty, it is easy to forget which word is an adjective when composing.  Adverbs are easy to spot, and adjectives are as well, if you are rereading, but in construction, adjectives can just happen.  I find the part that makes it most confusing in my thoughts now is the ability of some many words to function as adjectives, even if they are other parts of speech as well.   Colors can all be adjectives, of course, or nouns, and the use of adjectives is so natural a thing, isn't it, that I am sure I will flub it somewhat.  I will, of course, be focused upon not doing so, but Le Guin even states, later in the chapter, that the point is not the writing itself, or even that you achieve absolutely "chaste" writing, but instead is about the intent and the learning process that develops around this effort.


I am going to have to come back and do the exercise later, alas, as I have a busy day with much to do and little time to do it.  Anyhow, I wanted to post this now and I will get to work on the exercise as soon as I can.

Comments

  1. UnknownJuly 19, 2018 at 8:05 AM

    Sounds like an exercise that I did in college. We had to write melodies by only using the parts of harmony that were directly associated with the chord structure. It was really difficult at first!

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