I could see that furniture and other things were flying around/across the living room, so I ran in there and found my twenty year old, drug addicted son during one of his psychotic seizures.
Should I use "around" or "across" here?
If both are OK to use, which one of them sounds more forceful?
In my opinion, 'across' is the better word.
When you say 'around' the room, it gives the reader a image of things flying along the perimeter of the room. Although with closer examination, it can be deduced that the word wants to give the meaning of things flying in all different directions.
However, as a writer, you want to ensure that less misinterpretation would occur, thus 'across' would be a better word to show how things are flying in all directions in the room.
Both are acceptable in this case. Using 'around' gives the impression that things are flying in multiple directions or around the edges of the room(possibly in some sort of magical way). Using 'across' gives the impression that things are flying in one direction from one side of the room to the other. Across gives the impression of more force to me. However, the difference between the two is not that strong and different people may interpret them differently.
