: Re: Colorfulness of Language Vs. Simplicity In school I've always been taught to use colorful adjectives/verbs in writing. I recently wrote a blog on Medium and sent it to a couple friends, they

@Gail2416123

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What strikes me on reading your opening paragraph is that you have a dozen abstract nouns and no concrete ones.

Somewhere in the transition from print to electronica, our news-generating process broke down. Today, we have in place an incentive system that awards viewership, and thus revenue, on grounds of ethical flexibility over journalistic integrity. It is a process that subverts the underpinnings of good reporting — accuracy, objectivity, and impartiality for practically all things pursuant to clicks and shares.

There's nothing concrete here — nothing I can see in my mind's eye. Imagine your first line were something like Gone is the age when printers arranged the news in little blocks of lead. Okay, it's hardly an inspiring first line — but do you see how all of a sudden there's an element the reader can picture? I can see little blocks of lead, in a way that I can't see the abstract idea of 'flexibility' or 'underpinnings'.

Are you getting the difference? Concrete nouns slip more easily into your reader's brain. They're much, much easier to latch on to.

Abstract nouns are important — they help you express complex, interesting ideas — but your writing will be strongest with a balance. If your first three sentences contain seventeen (seventeen!) different abstract nouns, and no concrete ones, there's a good chance your reader's eyes will glaze over. But if you understand this, you can write better.

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