
A quick way to excise redundancies is to pay close attention to implied meaning. In fact, writing with multiple adjectives used with one noun makes your writing more difficult to read. Redundancy means you are saying the same thing more than once. All those adjectives strung together make your writing redundant. You could use one adjective to give your reader a sense of the man’s appearance. A filthy, disheveled, unkempt man burst through the door.Let’s rewrite the disheveled man with more adjectives. When you use two adjectives that have the same meaning your writing can feel bloated. If one’s good, two should be twice as good, right? That’s not always the case with adjectives. How Many Adjectives Should I Use for One Noun? This technique ties the character to their surroundings and reveals a character trait. Use negative adjectives in fiction to portray a character’s sentiment about the thing. Linda looked at the disgusting pot, but after soaking and scrubbing, it was still the same.Linda looked at the pot, but after soaking and scrubbing, it was still the same.You may have applied this principle when you stubbed your toe.

You can reflect those bad feelings using negative adjectives with things.

It doesn’t take much living to feel as though a thing-your stove, the corner post of your bed, the computer-is out to get you. And, they’ll form an image of a modern building that stands out from the plain surroundings. Now the reader has a sense of what the building feels like, at least to Jeff. Jeff looked up at Colson’s arrogant office complex surrounded by mini-malls and apartment blocks.Just one negative adjective will give the reader a sense of Jeff’s feelings about the complex. Jeff looked up at Colson’s office complex surrounded by mini-malls and apartment blocks.So, negative adjectives are powerful tools to set tone and mood in setting. Your character’s feelings about a place set the mood for your reader. It’s fairly easy to understand how negative traits evoke responses about people, but what about places? They work in a similar way, telling your reader how a place feels, or should make them feel.

Here’s a sample list of negative personality adjectives for character introduction and description: But sometimes a negative personality adjective or two helps to define a character when they are introduced. That’s the power of adjectives.Īdjectives for Negative Personality Traitsįiction writers and screenplay writers mainly want to show a character’s traits through action. What is he going to do? Why is he disheveled? What is going on outside the door? All those questions arise from one additional word. Just one word, and you have feelings about that man, and they’re not good.

Used as a technique, adjectives add specificity and emotional charge to your writing. Use adjectives to enhance comprehension of a person, place, or thing to add emotional wallop.
