Hey Lolli Leave Your Adverbs Here

 

    I think that most of us writing types know that the adverb is a creation of the devil, and is to be shunned at all costs.  The question that some of us have, is why?  Why is the adverb so demonized by the writing community?  What has the poor adverb ever done to any of us?  Well, I'm here on this Sunday morning to explain it to... probably no one.  lol  But, I love to write, so I'm going into heavy detail as to why you should never, well almost never, use an adverb in your writing.

    Let's start off by going over what an adverb does.  An adverb describes a verb.  That's it.  It simply an adjective for the verb.  Like an apple can be red or green, writing can be done quickly or slowly.  So, you may ask, why aren't adjectives demonized as well?  We'll get into that as well, and hopefully reading this article will help you remember the anti-adverb rule when you're writing, and save yourself a lot of time during the editing process.

    The adverb is to be shunned because they are, by and large, unnecessary.  They are fluff and dander that pads the word count, but contributes nothing to the message.  Adverbs are used to describe things that don't need description.  Adjectives on the other hand describe nouns, which are not self descriptive, and need help. 

    Comparatively speaking, and I mean compared to walking, people run fast.  You don't need to add any descriptive words, explaining to the reader, that someone is trying to go fast when they are running.  An apple, on the other hand, can be large or small, yellow or green, light or heavy.  Nouns don't describe themselves the way verbs do, so the adjective is necessary to give the reader a mental image of the scene.  

    When I say, "Mary ran," I can picture Mary running.  I don't need any other words to describe it, unless she is running in a way that is out of the ordinary.  "Mary ran slowly" or "Mary ran awkwardly" may be used, if the context doesn't give us this information already.  You still may not want to write "slowly" or "awkwardly" if the reader knows that she is running through knee deep mud.  The word running, and most other verbs, are self-descriptive, so most words added for description are superfluous and unnecessary.  Even though adverbs may sound good when we are writing, they bloat our work and slow the readers roll.

    I hope that you've learned something that will help you improve your writing.  Every one of us can improve.  That's the wonderful thing about writing, we are constantly evolving and improving as artists.  I hope you're having a terrific weekend, and as always happy writing!