Forum: Author Hangout

Reading a story today, my eye was caught by the frequency with which characters did things luridly. A text search turned up 157 other stories with the same use. Characters did lots of things luridly: stroking themselves, wearing things, walking, moving parts of their bodies in a lurid fashion.

Trouble is, luridly doesn't do anything more for me than sexily. Most of the problem I think is that it's being used in the third – person and as such it's (gasp) showing rather than telling. How would you show luridly?
ETA: I meant telling rather than showing, duh.
~ JBB
(who is a stuck on a story that refuses to reveal itself, luridly or in any other fashion)

luridly doesn't do anything more for me than sexily.

If you look up synonyms for "lurid" you probably won't find "sexy." You'll find words like: ghastly, grisly, gruesome, macabre.

"Sexily" and "luridly" have distinct meanings. While they can sometimes overlap in contexts involving taboo topics or adult themes, their core focus and tone are completely different.

Sexily: Means in a way that is sexually attractive or appealing. Its focus is entirely on physical allure, romance, or seduction.

Luridly: Means in a shocking, sensational, or graphic manner. It often describes something that is deliberately designed to provoke fear, disgust, or morbid curiosity.

From the Cambridge Dictionary: When both words are used together—such as describing something "luridly and sexily described"—it means something was depicted in a way that is both intentionally shocking and sexually explicit, combining the worst (or most sensational) aspects of both qualities.

How would you show luridly?

Oops.

Back to your actual question.

The question is unfair. You don't "show" an adverb. You show something, and if you aren't successful, you throw in an adverb as a crutch.

Sort of off topic, but here's a funny example of showing vs telling:

Show: The skin resists the blunt knife, dimpling slightly before bursting open in a splatter of red liquid. All over my hands. All over the kitchen counter. What's inside is worse: a viscous mess of seeds and soggy flesh that oozes across my plate, and turns to a fragrant mush in my mouth. It isn't the taste, but the texture that makes me long to spit it out.
Tell: I hate raw tomatoes.

Reading a story today, my eye was caught by the frequency with which characters did things luridly.

Was the story AI-generated? AI doesn't seem to share the human aversion to repeating words. And if 'luridly' was used in contexts which didn't quite seem to make sense, that would be another AI tell.

AJ