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Cia's Weekend Writing Challenges #7: Adjectives and Adverbs... Just Right!


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All right, all right. I've tortured you guys enough. In Writing Challenge #5 I asked you to write a scene with just 3 adjectives and 2 adverbs. That limited describing words to the bare minimum, far too little to give a vivid mental picture though there were valiant efforts. In Writing Challenge #6 I asked you to see if you could write a scene with up to half the words as adjectives and adverbs. That got wordy and clunky, and yet I liked seeing how both authors used different adjectives and adverbs to fit in the challenges; Dolores and Comicality didn't just throw any old adjectives and adverbs in there, they still tried to make these stories WORK. 

 

But they don't. Because to have a solid scene set in the mind's eye, an author does have to pick the right descriptions carefully. What has to be described to readers because it needs to stand out in a certain way? What emotion or feeling or scent or... well, just what does the reader need to know that only an adjective or adverb can add? And, most importantly, what's the best word to show that? Something can be a colorful flower or it can have an iridescent spray of blossoms. A river can have slow-moving muddy waters or gushing crystal-clear streams. The sky can be filled with wispy clouds painted across a deepening blue twilight or storm clouds could march across the darkening horizon. 

 

This Week's Challenge

What I'd like to see this week is for *authors to pick one of the following scenarios, the same as shared from previous weeks, and write them, JUST RIGHT. Still within the 100 to 300 word limit, but there's no restriction on adjectives and adverbs, though I'd like to see those still marked with adjectives in red and adverbs in blue

 

*ANYONE can do these challenges. You don't have to do them in the current week, and if you haven't done the last two weeks' adjectives & adverbs challenges and you want to do this one, that's okay too! Just have fun with it and try. It's all about writing something... so write something!! 

 

 

First, a reminder of just what these are and what they do. 

Adjectives: words that describe nouns (our persons, places, and things)

Adverbs: words that describe verbs; often end in ly (our action words)

 

Scenario 1

Imagine passing through a cemetery.

 

Now, what kind of character are you? 

 

Are you a pre-teen out there on a dare? A teenager with the power to kick butt? A widower who's had a few too many?

 

Who's following the story? A YA reader following a coming of age tale? An eager paranormal addict with a stake addiction? A hopeless romantic looking for some sort of second chance--even a spooky one

 

or

 

Scenario 2

Imagine wading through water.

 

Now, what kind of character are you?

 

Are you an adventurer seeking treasure? A hiker lost in the wilderness? A diver emerging from a dive?

 

Who's following the story? A reader with a love of historical fiction? Someone who can't resist stories of men in uniform? An adventure reader who eagerly devours tales about animals from the depths

 

or

 

Scenario 3

Imagine cradling something in your arms. 

 

Now what kind of character are you?

 

A parent? A veterinarian doing their job? A volunteer delivering blankets to a shelter? 

 

Who's following the story? Someone who loves cute kids in a story or can't resist a Daddy or Manny? An animal lover who can't resist a white coat? Someone who loves a contemporary story about giving back? 

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This is my final version. I changed the first paragraph a couple of times, but ultimately returned to the first draft. I changed the following lines, however. 

 

-----------------

Smoke was hanging over the pond. He was wading through the water. Spencer looked up, shielding his eyes. He had reached the platform built in antediluvian times. 12,000 years ago, the platform, now crumbled, had been the base of a giant monument. Spencer heard the sound that the legends spoke of, the hum and buzz of pumps and machines, mistaken for the growl of a beast by the natives. The noise was coming from the depths, from under the ground. Spencer shuddered. The factory of the gods had never stopped working.

A lizard with iridescent skin stared at him from the edge of the pond. The natives called it The Watcher, the obedient servant of the masters. They feared the creature. They said the gods had created it in their image.

 

The lizard stared at Spencer with an unblinking eye, then disappeared into the lush vegetation.

 

 

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