If you set out to write an adjective novel, you're setting out to write a mediocre novel; your allegiance is to the adjective, not to the story, and then that just sucks all the joy right out of it.
Interpretation
Focusing too much on embellishments can detract from the essence of storytelling.
This quote by Patrick Ness emphasizes that when a writer prioritizes adjectives and stylistic flourishes over the actual narrative, the result is often a lackluster story. It suggests that true storytelling should center on the plot and characters, rather than getting lost in ornate language, which can diminish the joy and authenticity of the writing.
In practice
A writing workshop facilitator can share this quote to encourage participants to focus on narrative depth rather than superficial description.
HERE It’s- Can I say? It’s like the song of a family where everything’s always all right, it’s a song of belonging that makes you belong just by hearing it, it’s a song that’ll always take care of you and never leave you. If you have a heart, it breaks, if you have a heart that’s broken, it fixes.
And the pain is too much it's too much it's too much and my hands are on my head and I'm rearing back and my mouth is open in a never-ending wordless wail of all the blackness that's inside me. And i fall back into it.
Hope may be the thing that pulls you forward, may be the thing that keeps you going, but that it's dangerous, that it's painful and risky, that it's making a dare in the world and when has the world ever let us win a dare?
No one ever seems to wonder what happens if it turns out we hate living on a planet? What if the sky’s too big? What if the air stinks? What if we go hungry?’ ‘And what if the air tastes of honey? What if there’s so much food we all get too fat? What if the sky is so beautiful we don’t get any work done because we’re all looking at it too much?
In this world of numbness and information overload, the ability to feel, my boy, is a rare gift indeed.
The books I like to read the most feel like they've been written by somebody who had to write them or go crazy. They had to get them out of their heads. I like that kind of urgency.
I used to be more involved with every aspect of everything onstage. I'm way more relaxed now. It feels like anything can happen.
The art of Frida Kahlo is a ribbon around a bomb.
Rationality is what we do to organize the world, to make it possible to predict. Art is the rehearsal for the inapplicability and failure of that process.
A film is never really good unless the camera is an eye in the head of a poet.
We do not go to the theatre like our ancestors, to escape from the pressure of reality, so much as to confirm our experience of it.
Whatever the thing you wish to say, there is but one word to express it, but one verb to give it movement, but one adjective to qualify it; you must seek until you find this noun, this verb, this adjective.
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