Nudge # 8 – Move away from the adjective…

image: Martin Parker

Adjectives.

Write 16 lines (or a good-sized paragraph) on the subject of a building (any kind of building is fine)

Use no more than 5 adjectives.

Try to avoid using adjectives for colour, temperature and texture (e.g. ‘ruddy cheeks’, ‘blistering heat’, ‘rough cloth’) instead try to find a different way of evoking the image or feeling.

Have fun!

Here’s an example of a few choice adjectives, working well:

From A Bird Came Down by Emily Dickinson

“A bird came down the walk:
He did not know I saw;
He bit an angle-worm in halves
And ate the fellow, raw.

And then he drank a dew
From a convenient grass,
And then hopped sidewise to the wall
To let a beetle pass.”