Nicer Than Nice

One of the side effects of doing more reviews & edits than I had previously is that I’m getting a better sense of what works (for me at least) and what doesn’t. I realize that, from time to time, these are all things I do as well. I imagine anyone that writes anything more than grocery lists fall victim to these pitfalls as well, but picking them out in the work of others is easier than it is in your own. The view from a remove is just clearer. There are a number of things that vex me when I find them. Misplaced modifiers for example are, to me, very jarring. Another thing I’m none too fond of is clunky, bland language. Descriptions like ‘she had a nice smile’ make me want to start yawning. Nice is just…well, nice. Not impactful or interesting or unusual, just…nice.

There are so many words out there that every year dictionaries have to move a handful of archaic ones out to make room for new ones. With that in mind, why do we insist on falling back on the same handful of descriptors time & again? I’m not saying there needs to be 80,000 $20 words in every book to see print, but surely there’s some sort of middle ground, right? Instead of that exemplar of ‘she had a nice smile’, why not dazzling? Why not luminescent? Why not beguiling, contagious or enticing? Instead of commenting on her nice smile, why not take it further? ‘…and when she smiled it was enough to make a man forget where he was going & plow right into a wall’ or ‘…all she had to do was flash that megawatt persuasion of glossy lips & that hint of an overbite that had enamored him & it was a done deal. The smile did all the convincing for her.’

Ok, perhaps not the most dazzling, luminescent examples ever committed to the page, or screen as it were, but you get the idea. So, next time you try reaching for a descriptor, make it a good one.