Prisimpad: A Guide to Wattpad, Writing, and Whatever

ON WRITING: Be Very, Very Quiet, I'm Hunting Adverbs

"The road to hell is paved with adverbs." –Stephen King

This will probably be short because of the simple fact there really isn't too much to say about killing an adverb. What is an adverb? Well here is the fancy, smancy definition.

Adverb (noun) a word or phrase that modifies or qualifies an adjective, verb, or other adverb or a word group, expressing a relation of place, time, circumstance, manner, cause, degree, etc.

The majority of words ending in ly are adverbs. And the majority of those words need to die a true death. Adverbs are like a fungus in your work and without proper care they'll take over and make your work come off as lazy. They bore the reader especially when there's a better way of saying it. Not all adverbs are bad, but use them sparingly. Question their purpose in that sentence whenever you see them.

Most adverbs seem to be tied into dialogue and I'd say every last one of those can be destroyed.

She said softly. Why she said softly? Why can't you just say she whispered?

He replied calmly. What purpose does him replying calmly serve? Show he's calm when he replies. Maybe he closes his eyes and takes a deep breath seconds before he speaks.

Jill shouted angrily. Why can't she just shout? Why does it have to be angrily? If she's angry, show us she's angry.

Phillip anxiously said. If Phillip is anxious, maybe he can twitch or rock on his feet. Something that shows he's anxious when he speaks.

Tammy shouted loudly. This adverb is repetitive. A shout by definition is loud. You can't shout softly. So why can't she just shout?

Let's look at some non-dialogue tag adverbs and why they're useless. This is mostly to help you get a sense of what to ask yourself when you see those adverbs in your writing, again using some isn't bad. Using them constantly is.

He ran quickly. In this case, it's redundant. You can't run slowly. You can jog but you can't run slowly, thus if he's running it's by definition quickly. So kill that adverb. If he must run quickly because you feel just running isn't enough, then why not have him gallop instead? Maybe he can sprint. Find a stronger action word instead of using the repetitive run quickly.

She is truly beautiful. Why is truly needed? What does it add to this sentence? Does it somehow make her more beautiful? Then how about writing exquisite, gorgeous, stunning anything that conveys this truly beautiful quality she has.

He pressed firmly on the lid. What purpose does firmly have? If it's to convey he's angry or something, maybe he can slam down on the lid instead.

Max nodded jerkily. What the hell does that even mean? Is Max twitching when he nods or something? If so, tell us that.

She is slightly bored. How can she be slightly bored? She's either bored or she isn't bored. Just say she's bored!

I'm guilty of using several of these. In my first draft I don't care as much, I try to be aware of them, but often I save the killing of adverbs for my next draft . . . if it gets to a next draft. In this guide I haven't paid any attention to how many adverbs I use because I don't care.

When you find that adverb, look at the sentence closely. Can it still make sense if you delete the adverb? Or is there another way to say it using a stronger word? If that adverb is not necessary to get your message across, kill it. There are some you can't avoid using and those are fine. Keep them. But kill the redundant useless buggers that make you look lazy.

Question yourself. I can't stress this enough when you're writing. It's something I spend a lot of time doing when I do a rewrite. First drafts, not so much, but in that second draft and on I look at every sentence and word. My vocabulary isn't the strongest, I consider myself simple when it comes to my word choice. That makes me high risk for adverb abuse (and overused words) if I'm not careful. There are some I do my best to kill the second I use them unless I can't find any way out of it. Only, actually, just, and very. I struggle with those four words. If I can find a way to avoid them, I will, even in a first draft. I won't spend hours agonizing over killing them, but I'll keep in mind they need to die.