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Oct 29, 2018 at 8:34pm

#3226001

DISCUSSION: Milquetoast

by Dave

one, two, three, four

one, two, three, four

Are you ready for some linguistic calisthenics to strengthen your writing muscles?

Ever since Casper Milquetoast stepped into a panel of The Timid Soul cartoon strip in 1924, his name has become synonymous with "meek" and "unassertive." His creator, Harold T. Webster, described him as a "man who speaks softly and gets hit with a big stick."

Today, we forge ahead on our campaign against the wussification of the English language.

Our first target is passive verbs. Compare the statement "She is going down the street" with "She walks down the street" and the even stronger "She struts down the street." Each of those descriptions paints a more distinct picture of the action involved and adds a little more engaging vim and vigor than the one before it.

The second target is adverbs. In his book On Writing, Stephen King says "I believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs, and I will shout it from the rooftops.” Many writers use adverbs as crutches for weak verbs, and many adverbs turn out to be completely unnecessary. For example, consider the phrase "He smiled happily." Does the smile not tell the reader that he is happy? Adverbs are also used to intensify the action. Instead of saying "He ran quickly," we could say "He raced."

The next target is abstract and generic nouns. Abstract terms, such as "love" or "pain," are difficult for the reader to perceive, because every reader has a different set of circumstances associated with those words. Specific actions can convey those impressions much more clearly. The Latin suffix -tion means "the act of." If the subject is a noun ending in -tion, a strong verb may be present in the middle of the word. For example, creation means the act of creating. Find the strong verb, then make it even stronger.

Milquetoast has a way of creeping into our writing as we try to capture fresh ideas. Taking the time to root it out and replace it with dynamite will ensure we keep a firm grasp on the reader's attention.

The following link offers a compilation (Ooops!

), make that compiles a list of muscular verbs, nouns, and modifiers to strengthen the vitality of your expression: https://d39smchmfovhlz.cloudfront.net/qWrrfb4gc0tNEcCROx7Y1WHtfNUZuRzKm8UvkKHTvg...

Your assignment: Think about some emotion you experienced recently. Write about that emotion from the perspective of some inanimate object.

Let the creativity flow from your soul!