While he was not averse to having
nice things said about his writing, Twain abhorred flowery adjectives in those
descriptions just as he disdained using them in his own writing. “Stick to it; don’t let fluff and flowers and
verbosity creep in,” he advised. “When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I
don’t mean utterly, but kill most of them – then the rest will be valuable.
They weaken when they are close together. They give strength when they are wide
apart. An adjective habit, or a wordy, diffuse, flowery habit, once fastened
upon a person, is as hard to get rid of as any other vice.”
Twain said you should write using plain, simple language, short words, and brief sentences. And
while he was pleased when he coined a word or phrase that others liked
to use (mentioning that it came from him, of course), he also noted that
the use of
“a pregnant pause” also could be a great writing style. “The right word may be effective,” he wrote,
“but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.”
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