Hey, everyone.
It's been a while since I last wrote an article for Let's Talk About Writing. Hell, this isn't even a Let's Talk About Writing article. This is a new thing I'm doing where I started to create memes as a means to raise awareness about my "brand." As a result, to help further increase awareness, I've decided to write blog posts further explaining myself for the memes I've come up with. I've already started with my INTJ posts and I decided to expand into writing. So, this is that. Let's get into it.
Concerning the Word "Very"
In some writing circles, they hate the word "very." I don't exactly know why, but my guess is twofold: 1. Because if you describe something as being "very big" or "very pretty," it would be simpler to use "huge" or "beautiful" instead, and 2. "Huge" and "beautiful" are only one word each instead of two, so it cuts down on your word count which in theory cuts down on how many pages need to be printed for your book, which I'm beginning to believe is totally asinine because words like "beautiful" are just as long as "very pretty" is in terms of space used.
Now, while I can appreciate the perspective that "beautiful" is superior to "pretty" and "huge" superior to "big," I personally believe that "beautiful" and "huge" are in their own classes of beauty and size. Ergo, it isn't a big deal to describe something as "very pretty" or "very big" because both are still within the realms of prettiness and bigness, they're just at the extreme top ends without having crossed into beautifulness and hugeness. And in some cases, I would argue that beautifulness and prettiness are not the same thing or that they're not on the same scale, meaning that a girl can just as easily be described as "very pretty" as she could "very beautiful" depending on which scale she falls.
Furthermore, things become even more jostled when you're dealing with an object or thing so big, the only way to describe it is as "extremely enormous" which is practically the same thing as saying "very big." It causes a good editor and eagle-eyed readers to go, "What? You couldn't find one word to take the place of 'extremely enormous?'" Thus, we find ourselves in a vicious cycle of trying to come up with single words to replace an adjective and its adverbial modifier the higher and higher up we go on a scale.
However, what ticks me off the most about getting rid of the word "very" is that I see it as a restriction of creativity. I am a writer and words are my tools. Why should I limit myself in the use of the tools at my disposal? Like I said above, there can be a philosophically and subtle difference between "very big" and "huge" that some people are aware of. Therefore, shouldn't I have access to both terms to use in their specific situations? To not do so would limit my creativity and possibly mislead my readers. The only defense I can think of to that point is that I shouldn't interfere with the imaginations of my readers. I should only give them enough detail to get them started, but then leave it there. But again, the limiting of creativity and subtle differences in specific situations. I can't get around those two.
Therefore, for the sake of my own mental stability, I shall choose to leave my options open and never exclude a particular word for I may need it one day. "Very" stays.
Keep writing, my friends.
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