For The Lame And Crippled

[FEELINGLUCKYPUNK]

Nouns and verbs I mean.

Adverbs exist to help bad verbs and nouns...so, very, and more are walkers and crutches and canes for piss poor vocabularies.

 

[FEELINGLUCKYPUNK]

I was thinking the topic might be too tough for LIT writers.

 

[TxRad]

Nope, just an idiot statement that needs no discussion.

 

[rjordan]

Nouns and verbs I mean.

Adverbs exist to help bad verbs and nouns...so, very, and more are walkers and crutches and canes for piss poor vocabularies.

I heard that one about 45 years ago. My employer required all us newly-minted engineers to serve time at hard labor in tech pubs. It was one of a dozen other aphorisms that didn't make any more sense then than they do now.

"Use the words that make your point. Leave out the ones that don't." See, it's easy to make up your own.

rj

 

[SimonDoom]

I was thinking the topic might be too tough for LIT writers.

I am thinking that if you actually want people to respond to your posts it's better not to say things like this about them. If you really think this about them then it's rather lame that you wish to engage them, isn't it?

 

[Desiremakesmeweak]

I was going to say something not too complimentary (on account i am guilty of this stuff) except that the OP is really very right, so...

Has anyone else noticed this thing in the media where someone interviews someone, or they ask some 'expert' a touchy question, and the person goes: 'So, blah blah blah.'

Personally, every time I hear this beginning to a statement I feel I am about to be made to listen to a fairy-tale narrative.

 

[R. Richard]

Some years back, I was called into an ambush by the executives running the company for which I worked. My supervisor, a PhD from a respected, major university in England and smarter than me asked me what I thought of a new computer manual.
I told my supervisor that the manual was a piece of shit.
My supervisor told me that he thought that it was well written and very good.
I pounced, "Show me the pages where the manual tells me how to set up a tasking structure." (If you want to code a real-tine computer application you have to have a tasking structure.)
My supervisor idly flipped a few pages of the manual (there was nowhere that a tasking structure was even addressed, although the manual was written in iambic pentameter unrhymed,) while the top executive filed out. I won. No one else learned.
WRITE ONLY WHAT YOU KNOW!

 

[KeithD]

Those of us who have been here for any length of time are accustomed to having James BJ (the OP) discover a tidbit of this or that on writing that sounds kicky and then to breathlessly reveal it to everyone on the board as if he invented it and to declare his precious jewel along with a backslap of how inferior everyone else here is to him as a writer and inventor/discoverer of pithy sweeping generalization writing "truisms."

 

[FEELINGLUCKYPUNK]

I am thinking that if you actually want people to respond to your posts it's better not to say things like this about them. If you really think this about them then it's rather lame that you wish to engage them, isn't it?

Simple Simon, feel free to add me to your ignore list.

 

[FEELINGLUCKYPUNK]

I was going to say something not too complimentary (on account i am guilty of this stuff) except that the OP is really very right, so...

Has anyone else noticed this thing in the media where someone interviews someone, or they ask some 'expert' a touchy question, and the person goes: 'So, blah blah blah.'

Personally, every time I hear this beginning to a statement I feel I am about to be made to listen to a fairy-tale narrative.

I am right. If writers use adverbs they need better vocabularies. That saits OK with me if LIT writers wanna be dum fucks.

 

[FEELINGLUCKYPUNK]

I heard that one about 45 years ago. My employer required all us newly-minted engineers to serve time at hard labor in tech pubs. It was one of a dozen other aphorisms that didn't make any more sense then than they do now.

"Use the words that make your point. Leave out the ones that don't." See, it's easy to make up your own.

rj

Last I checked youre not the final word for anything. You cant show I'm wrong, so tou whine with the mob..

 

[SimonDoom]

Simple Simon, feel free to add me to your ignore list.

I have no ignore list. I have never ignored anyone. I listen to what people say and respond accordingly. My point stands, and you haven't responded to it: if you want people to respond to a thread, don't launch broad insults at them.

 

[KeithD]

But . . . but . . . the insult is the point of a James B. Johnson post.

 

[FEELINGLUCKYPUNK]

I have no ignore list. I have never ignored anyone. I listen to what people say and respond accordingly. My point stands, and you haven't responded to it: if you want people to respond to a thread, don't launch broad insults at them.

Simple Simon

My mission at LIT is learning what works with readers. I mean, being Gay and Brit and dum as dirt counts for a lot here but none of the above is a ;arger population of readers.

 

[KindofHere]

Nouns and verbs I mean.

Adverbs exist to help bad verbs and nouns...so, very, and more are walkers and crutches and canes for piss poor vocabularies.

You're a fucking moron. You have no idea how to string words together to create a story that draws people in and refuses to let them go. What's it like shitting through your fingers?

AND

How about an in depth analysis of why adverbs are not worth using instead of a paraphrased writing tip you read online that makes you sound bitter and ignorant on the hows and whys of writing?

 

[FEELINGLUCKYPUNK]

Ed McBain (Evan Hunter) compiled 25 of his early stories for folks to see professionals get better with time. Scott Meridith edited the early stuff but the stuff wasn't fl are obvious.awless, the adverbs

 

[SimonDoom]

But . . . but . . . the insult is the point of a James B. Johnson post.

Some part of me cannot resist treating another's comment as being made in good faith, and responding to it as though it is, even when deep down I know I'm being hopelessly and foolishly naive.

"Hopelessly" and "foolishly" -- adverbs. Oops.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Some part of me cannot resist treating another's comment as being made in good faith, and responding to it as though it is, even when deep down I know I'm being hopelessly and foolishly naive.

"Hopelessly" and "foolishly" -- adverbs. Oops.

It disarms folk when you do that, and very occasionally, you find a gem in the dirt. Rare, but it happens. Most times though, it's just James, filling his barrel with fish. They still rise…

 

[KeithD]

Can you conceive of James being disarmed? Neither can I.

 

[lovecraft68]

You're a fucking moron. You have no idea how to string words together to create a story that draws people in and refuses to let them go. What's it like shitting through your fingers?

AND

How about an in depth analysis of why adverbs are not worth using instead of a paraphrased writing tip you read online that makes you sound bitter and ignorant on the hows and whys of writing?

Well, I see you've been banned for about the sixth time or so.

But still want to respond to your comment. Although there has always been a school of thought that adverbs are a sign of weak writing, the concept really took off when Stephen King condemned them in his book on writing.

So now a bunch of people who have no mind of their own will blindly follow that thinking they will somehow duplicate his success. Worth noting that King does not follow a lot of the advice he gives in that book.

 

[CoffeeWithMonkeys]

What?
I always feel lost here, which is probably for the best. I'll go hide back in my oblivious bubble under a rock now...

Funny story, sort of off topic, but sort of explaining me.
We were at the store and there were representatives from Direct Tv there. He stopped me and asked what service I had for tv. I said none. He asked why and if I just used hulu or netflix. I said no we use neither, we don't have a tv. Ok sort of a lie. we do own a tv, but we used to keep it int he basement and only brought it up every once in awhile to watch stuff, like last year on Thanksgiving we watched the parade and then the dog show.
We've since moved and don't have a basement so now it does reside in the living room, but we rarely do anything with it.
So then he asks Well who do you have for internet. I said Charter. He said Oh I bet you're paying at least $60 a month. I said no it's like $30.
He said well thanks, have a nice day.

So really I do live in an oblivious bubble under a rock because I never know anything going on in the world since we don't do tv and I haven't been to the movies since 1997.

 

[FEELINGLUCKYPUNK]

It disarms folk when you do that, and very occasionally, you find a gem in the dirt. Rare, but it happens. Most times though, it's just James, filling his barrel with fish. They still rise…

"JBJ SUX" improves no one's writing. Its your point and a popular attitude of all mediocre writers. Make a case for your alternative hypothesis. You cant.

 

[FEELINGLUCKYPUNK]

You're a fucking moron. You have no idea how to string words together to create a story that draws people in and refuses to let them go. What's it like shitting through your fingers?

AND

How about an in depth analysis of why adverbs are not worth using instead of a paraphrased writing tip you read online that makes you sound bitter and ignorant on the hows and whys of writing?

Its obvious. Adverbs are the lazy-dummy writers friend but say nuthin that matters.

 

[FEELINGLUCKYPUNK]

On tv this morning a Nimrod characterized background checks as needing to be MORE DEEPLY executed, then a second Nimrod used LASTLY, which says shit about sequence.

 

[SimonDoom]

It's a matter of degree, rather than a matter of following an absolute rule. Every author uses adverbs. But there's some evidence that "great" authors use adverbs less often than mediocre ones. This article makes that point:

https://www.livemint.com/Leisure/i8wjh4uNOfjbcZNuVvMPQM/The-adverbs-that-gave-JK-Rowling-away.html

According to the article, an author that uses adverbs infrequently is more likely to be judged great. On the other hand, an author like J.K. Rowling, who uses tons of adverbs, is not regarded as a great stylist. I enjoyed the Harry Potter books for the world-building and storytelling, but the prose style can be a chore to get through.

The better rule is not to avoid them altogether, but to edit yourself zealously and take out the adverbs where finding some other way to describe something will add vigor and clarity to the writing.

The bad adverbs tend to be those ending in "ly". There are many cases where adverb use is just fine, though. Consider the sentence:

"I often walked to the park."

"Often" is an adverb. There's nothing wrong with it in this sentence.

But if you wrote:

"I enthusiastically walked to the park."

That's not so good. Better would be to describe the manner in which you went to the park so the reader can decide for himself or herself that what you did was enthusiastic. Showing rather than telling.