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Instead of a looking for a single expression, consider the cases individually. If you can show us that it's black (pitch- or otherwise), you won't need to tell us. Consider: Pine resin cloake...
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#3: Attribution notice added
by
System
·
2019-12-08T02:54:01Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/8018 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision
Instead of a looking for a single expression, consider the cases individually. If you can _show_ us that it's black (pitch- or otherwise), you won't need to tell us. Consider: > Pine resin **cloaked** the dense forest in darkness... > > I also recalled one **moonless** <sup>1</sup> night Sometimes you really do just need an adjective, such as "_pitch-black_ eyes". That's fine. Your goal isn't to completely avoid the expression, but rather to not over-use it. I might take a broader approach with your last example. It sounds like you are describing something supernatural, a creeping darkness that's overwhelming the world (or some such). If that's the case, you can talk about it like that; this is well beyond moonless or pitch-black nights and is something more ominous. Bring that out. You can talk about the darkness _overwhelming_ the world (leaving, implied, that it would have to be pretty dark to do that), or talk about the _vast darkness_. <sup>1</sup> Or **starless** , as pointed out by Paul A. Clayton in a comment.
#1: Imported from external source
by
System
·
2013-06-02T18:44:33Z (over 11 years ago)
Original score: 2