Advertisers have known for a long time that if you want to make something sound delicious, just add adjectives.\u00a0 The adjectives don’t even have to make sense.\u00a0 String them on in sequence, and the subject becomes desirable.<\/p>\n
A quick example: oatmeal.<\/p>\n
Oatmeal is okay, but it’s about as bland a thing as you can eat.\u00a0 Right?<\/p>\n
Let’s make it more interesting.\u00a0 Let’s just add one word.\u00a0 The word doesn’t even say anything about the flavor.\u00a0 It’s just a brand: Quaker oatmeal.<\/p>\n
It might not be delicious yet, but it’s suddenly more interesting.\u00a0 Just making it specific has conjured up a particular bowl of oatmeal, perhaps with an image of a man in a tricorn cap.\u00a0 Maybe you have fond memories of eating that particular oatmeal.\u00a0 Maybe you just remember the commercials.\u00a0 But I bet if choice one was oatmeal, and choice two was Quaker oatmeal, most people would go for the more specific choice.<\/p>\n
But let’s take this to eleven.\u00a0 Let me throw some extra descriptors into the mix and see if I can change your next meal plans: Rich, steel-cut, buttered, cinnamon and brown-sugar oatmeal, still hot and steaming.<\/p>\n
Now we’re talking, right?\u00a0 Maybe you don’t normally like oatmeal, but the specifics paint an image that would at the very least get you to try a spoonful.<\/p>\n
Of course, words do what you want them to do.\u00a0 You can make something delicious or disgusting with word choices.\u00a0 But those descriptive words are additive.\u00a0 You can keep piling on the spice by adding more words to the soup.<\/p>\n
What you sacrifice in a story by indulging in this level of specificity is immediacy.\u00a0 When you stop to taste the world more deeply, you slow the story down.\u00a0 That’s not necessarily a bad thing, though.\u00a0 In fact, alternating between high-octane adventure and Tolkienesque dives into detail can keep the reader going.\u00a0 You want their heart to race, but you also want them to have a chance to slow down and breathe.<\/p>\n
It can also be a very effective way of tightening the strings of suspense.\u00a0 Adding just that much more detail before a reveal and a release draws the moment out.\u00a0 The girl being hunted in the night.\u00a0 Her breath steaming to mist.\u00a0 Her hands shaking.\u00a0 The slow, shuffling drag of her feet through the grass, because she’s so tired from running.\u00a0 The warm light of safety just a few more feet away.\u00a0 If she can just go just a little further.\u00a0 If she can just…<\/p>\n
You can stretch a moment out like that for a long time through adding more and more description.\u00a0 But don’t go too far because this is a point where the reader is holding their breath.\u00a0 Make them hold it good and long, but don’t try to make them pass out.\u00a0 If they release that held breath too soon, they’re likely to get bored and fall out of the moment.<\/p>\n
Adjectives are delicious.\u00a0 They come at a cost, but when they’re used right, the cost is cheap and the payoff is huge.\u00a0 They can be used to make a part of your story more vivid, while at the same time, alter the flow of the story, controlling the pace.<\/p>\n
One last example of descriptors done right is Chuck Wendig’s #HeirloomApples tweets.\u00a0 Every day or so, he tweets about two or three heirloom apples, and it is amazing.\u00a0 Click on the following, and read through the child tweets.\u00a0 They’re good enough to make a guy forget he had a tummy ache.<\/p>\n
\nFirst up: BROWN RUSSET. Look at this shit. This is a dockworker’s apple. #heirloomapple<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/lSWizfHffV<\/a><\/p>\n
\u2014 Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) October 25, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n