Using Interesting Nouns
Less-experienced folks who want to try their hand at improving their writing skills should always start their training at the most basic level: the use of nouns and verbs. As the backbone of pretty much every sentence constructed, choosing the right nouns and verbs to use are critical at fostering any piece of writing’s overall look and feel.
Adjectives
Many novice writers try to prop up their sentences with the use of adjectives, thinking these modifiers can bring color to otherwise drab prose. While that may be correct to some extent, it’s more important to fashion interesting nouns (and verbs) to achieve the improvements they are looking for. In fact, excessive attempts at imputing characteristics to nouns can backfire, leading to messy writing.
Finding Interesting Nouns
The next time you feel the need to add two or more adjectives to modify a noun, it is usually best to take a step back and see if you can alter the text in another manner. What exactly are you trying to describe with the combination of the adjective and the noun?
For instance, saying “the loud, hairy dog” can easily be substituted with “the German Shepherd,” which is more descriptive and can conjure a more complete image in the reader’s mind. See, while the “loud and hairy” adjectives can aid in the picture, it is hardly complete and exact. Announcing it as a German Shepherd, on the other hand, solidifies that idea, bringing along with it the readers’ innate feelings and thoughts about the particular animal.
If you’re at a loss when trying to replace your adjectives with stronger nouns, try to make use of the integrated thesaurus and word tools in your grammar software. A little digging and some thought should turn up a more useful word for you to squeeze in there.