"The
two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you
find out why." — Mark Twain
Born
in Missouri in 1835, 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.
“(Adjectives)
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,
often listed among America’s greatest novelists, 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 said, “but no word was ever as effective as a
rightly timed pause.”
No comments:
Post a Comment