The Writers Toolkit – Descriptive Adjectives

One would think after years of writing for school and simple communication, that the exercise of writing would be a breeze. It is not. Writing for a project is one thing, writing a technical paper is another, but writing a story–ah, therein lies the challenge. Unlike the previous forms of writing, story writing requires that the words on the page be evocative of some imagery. It is an exercise in creating a world that only you can see and distilling it down to descriptions that allow others to see just a fraction of the detail that your mind’s eye has taken in. Sometimes the words are not enough–the feeling and emotions that are wrapped up in a story may be of such intricate complexity that words seem to pale in comparison. I am learning from my short foray into the writing world that a good writer stays up on her descriptive adjectives. In describing how the plot of a story progresses, and how the players in the game interact with themselves and their environment, the understanding of the use of adjectives is ESSENTIAL. Enter http://descriptivewords.org/ — a tool that enables you to search for descriptive words by topic, letter, related words, etc. While this might be a bit limiting in scope (hey, you could always define a compound word in a way that suits the story you’re telling), it is a wonderful tool to keep in the writer’s toolbox. Keep imagining and for now and always, happy writing.