Invigorate your writing with some unconventional modifiers

Jonah Goldberg caught my attention the other day with this:

The story of all three major races . . . is that this conventional wisdom was incandescently wrong and ill-advised.

Incandescent can mean “glowing or white with heat,” “intensely bright,” “brilliant; masterly; extraordinarily lucid,”or “aglow with ardor, purpose, etc.” The adverb form, incandescently, isn’t usually coupled with a word like wrong, the way Goldberg used it, but it works, and works well. It emphasizes the point that the “conventional wisdom” isn’t just slightly wrong, but it is wrongness that you need welding goggles to safely view. It’s wrongness raised to a higher degree, with whipped cream and a cherry on top. It’s the kind of wrongness that only highly educated experts are capable of. But it says it in only two words.

Try using some modifiers—adjectives or adverbs—in unconventional ways. (Don’t overdo it, though, or the cleverness of your writing will capture your audience’s attention, rather than the point you’re trying to make.)

Comments

[Eric C]

I've read a lot of writing advice that says to eliminate adverbs. But the above example shows that when used in a clever and inventive way, they are priceless. Good find.

[Roy Jacobsen]

I'd never go so far as to say "eliminate adverbs." But if you're going to use one, be sure it's pulling its weight.

[Jake Strawwalker]

While being acutely aware of the speck in his neighbor's eye, he was at the same time only obtusely aware of the log in his own. - paraphrase of Luke 6:41,42