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Paula looks at adverbs
in our writing.
‘The road to hell is
paved with adverbs,’ said Stephen King.
In one sense, I agree with him. Adverbs can often lead to
lazy writing. Recently I read a novel (by a best-selling author) which was
littered with adverbs, especially after dialogue tags. On one Kindle page
alone, there was: said truculently, said coldly, retorted sarcastically, said
wearily, reiterated sullenly, said dourly - and when I got to 'she ejaculated
hoarsely’ I nearly splurted my coffee in the middle of Starbucks!
Yes, there are times when we should avoid adverbs,
especially when they are redundant (‘she whispered quietly’) or when the adverb
can be replaced by a stronger verb (‘he raced down the street’ instead of ‘he
walked quickly’). With dialogue, it is usually better to show (with a simple action/gesture) how a character is feeling, rather than giving readers a plethora of adverbs to tell them how someone said something.
However, this doesn’t mean that ALL adverbs have to be
deleted! Sometimes an effort to do that can lead to ‘clunky’ writing,
especially if the writer is simply substituting an adverbial phrase in place of
the adverb. Isn’t it better to say ‘He stroked her cheek tenderly’ instead of ‘He
stroked her cheek in a tender manner’ (or any other verbose description of what
‘tenderly’ means)?
Do a search of your latest chapter for ‘ly’ words, and you’ll
probably (there’s one!) be surprised by how often you use words ending in ‘ly’.
But then consider how the sentences containing each of those words could be
rewritten. Could I have removed ‘probably’ from the above sentence? Yes, but
then I’d be assuming that you WILL be surprised or, worse still, insinuating
that you have used millions of adverbs! Omitting that adverb would change the
whole meaning of the sentence – and that can be true in our fiction writing,
too.
I do think we need to be aware of not overusing adverbs, but
at the same time, not go overboard trying to find other words. Sometimes a
simple adverb is the best word to use.
I agree completely (ha). While I try to remove as many of them as possible, I believe they add something to the the descriptions when used with discretion.
ReplyDeleteExactly. The skill is knowing which to delete or replace, and which to leave.
DeleteIt is funny. When growing up our English teacher would be over the moon when we were descriptive and expressed a knowledge of the English language which is beautiful and when used correctly enhances a story. When over-used can kill it dead. thanks for this Paula. x
ReplyDeleteAs an English major, I'm amazed at how often what was considered proper form for English papers--adverbs, complex sentences, certain punctuation--is frowned upon in the romance genre. Not sure why the change, other than appealing to readers.
DeleteI'm wondering if it's a symptom of the 'dumbing-down' of readers, or whether it's a reaction against the 'purple prose' of romance novels in the past.
DeleteGreat post!
ReplyDeleteI think everything is becoming streamlined to move faster. A vivid verb replaces descriptive adverbs.
Maybe it's for the good: read faster and buy more books.
I still think adjectives are necessary.
Agree about vivid verbs - as long as they don't sound as if the writer has swallowed a thesaurus! Agree about adjectives, too. They are an essential part of the richness of our language.
DeleteGreat post Paula. I will certainly edit more carefully, looking for unnecessary adverbs.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Carol. The important thing (to my mind mind) is choosing which adverbs to retain and which to replace with stronger, more descriptive verbs.
DeleteI tend to break a lot of formal writing 'rules' when I write. I think no matter what you do, the most important thing to to make the story shine in whatever way it needs to. Be true to your characters and your story...and tell the story the way it needs to be told.
ReplyDeleteGreat comment, Debra! The story is the important thing - as long as we don't distract our readers with too many adverbs!
Delete