Tuesday, April 24, 2018

Adverbs or No Adverbs?


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.

11 comments:

  1. 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.

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    1. Exactly. The skill is knowing which to delete or replace, and which to leave.

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  2. It 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

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    1. As 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.

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    2. I'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.

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  3. Great post!
    I 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.

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    1. 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.

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  4. Great post Paula. I will certainly edit more carefully, looking for unnecessary adverbs.

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    1. Thanks, Carol. The important thing (to my mind mind) is choosing which adverbs to retain and which to replace with stronger, more descriptive verbs.

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  5. I 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.

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    1. Great comment, Debra! The story is the important thing - as long as we don't distract our readers with too many adverbs!

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