brust@starfire.UUCP (Steven K. Zoltan Brust) (02/10/86)
> From: John Platt <PLATT@CIT-20.ARPA> > > > > Well, I'm by no means a professional writer, but I have heard some > professional writers talk about technique. The one thing I seem to > recall is that description is good, but adjectives are (relatively) bad. > In other words, use you non-ordinary nouns and verbs to convey description, > not long strings of adjectives and adverbs. Thus, "Jerry snarled" is better > than "Jerry violently said." This seems reasonable to me. > > john platt > platt@cit-20 > scgvaxd!cit-vax!platt > ------- To me, I think it depends on context, number of times you're using it, the effect you're going for, and the phase of the moon. In the case you mention, it mostly depends on Jerry's words. If he is saying, "I'm going home now," then I might want to make it, "Jerry snarled." But if he's saying something like, "As soon as I get out of this trap, Doctor Zork, I'm going to dismember you," then I don't see why you need to describe who he said it at all. On the other hand, I might well do something like, "I could hear through the wall that Jerry was making a violent statement, but I couldn't catch the words." Does that make sense? skzb