Moon Madness by Andrew Wyeth: art for writers

A painting by one of the most popular American artists of the 20th century,  Andrew Wyeth (1917 – 2009).

A writing exercise linked to this painting has to be about capturing the atmosphere. And, for that reason, I think it’s also about verbs. They are a powerful and economical way of describing what it feels like to be there: the goal of all good writing. Think about the difference between the knife blew across the street and the wind knifed across the street. Choose the right verb and you don’t always need an adjective. And that’s a good thing because a careless scattering of adjectives makes for flabby, indigestible writing.

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