Stephen King draws me into his novels … his characters, his twists of plot.  And also his style of writing.  I usually follow his example when I create these blog posts.

King “encourages writers to be lean and precise in their word choices.  This means carefully considering every adjective and ensuring it adds value to the sentence, rather than simply being used to embellish … Instead of relying on adjectives, King encourages writers to find more vivid and impactful nouns and verbs to create a more compelling and engaging reading experience.”

“King also cautions against using multiple adjectives in succession, as they can often become clunky and weaken the sentence.  He advises focusing on the most impactful adjective and omitting unnecessary ones.”

And then there’s Stephen’s distaste for adverbs.  They can modify (and supposedly enhance) verbs or adjectives.  He would say “She jumped!” rather than “She jumped powerfully!”  His famous quote: The road to hell is paved with adverbs.  “King’s advice is rooted in the belief that effective writing relies on strong verbs and nouns that convey meaning directly, rather than relying on adverbs to modify them.”

I have a special distaste for adverbs that are supposed to give additional meaning to an adjective: “The sunset was stunningly gorgeous.”  And even more distaste for adverbs that diminish the intensity of an adjective.  Here’s my personal list of revulsion:

Somewhat

Moderately

Slightly

Fairly

A little

A bit

Kind of

Sort of

To a degree

Relatively

Pretty

Rather

***

I vote for

Simple and direct