Writing, part deux

If you keep composition simple, you can afford the rare miscreance | Marvin Olasky

ELEVEN MONTHS AGO I wrote in praise of simple, straightforward writing and elicited numerous responses ("The write stuff," May 10, 2003). One from Peter Irvine "wondered about words like ... well, rapscallion and eviscerated and diaphanous and somnolent and pithy and turgid and rapacious and imprecation and enigmatically and miscreant: Aren't they simply wonderful words, beautiful words? Must we really say goodbye to them for short, clean, economical action sentences that feel like cold steel to the soul?"

No, Peter, and let me offer an analogy: By economizing much of the time, a man is able to spend money at the right time. By not eating sugary junk every day we are free to eat an elegant piece of cheesecake. Write with strong nouns and verbs so that when you want to throw in an adjective like "diaphanous" it will stand out. Mark Twain said it well: "When you catch adjectives, 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."