Writers Tips

Modifiers

A common mistake for writers is the overuse of modifiers. Too many adjectives and adverbs can weaken your text. It can be a sign that you’re not using appropriate nouns and verbs. A quick way to identify whether you are falling into this trap is to scan for an abundance of commas in your text. It may be impossible to remove modifiers entirely, but you should limit your text to only using a single modifier in succession. Choose the most suitable or interesting for the purpose. For example:

Tracey quickly ran through the dark, damp cavern.

Here we can remove the adverb quickly by choosing a stronger verb. We could substitute ran with the word sprinted, to make for a tighter read.

Additionally, we have two adjectives modifying the noun cavern. We should cut this down to one. In this case the word dank might serve better.

By applying these changes we are left with:

Tracey sprinted through the dank cavern.

Which has increased energy and punch.