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"I believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs, and I will shout it from the rooftops. To put it another way, they're like dandelions. If you have one on your lawn, it looks pretty and unique. If you fail to root it out, however, you find five the next day... fifty the day after that... and then, my brothers and sisters, your lawn is totally, completely, and profligately covered with dandelions. By then you see them for the weeds they really are, but by then it's - GASP!! - too late." ~ Stephen King - On Writing
If you haven't read this book, read it. NOW! I'm currently reading it for the third time and each time I read it I swear I absorb a bit of his soul into mine. That bloke knows what he's talking about.
I love his take on adverbs, and he puts it all in such a way that is so bloody easy to comprehend. None of this bollocks that a lot of "writing manuals" tend to spout. This is good stuff (and a fun read) straight from the horse's mouth (King, not Camilla).
As the thread title says: He closed the door firmly. Spot the evil adverb and banish it from your prose. As King states, it expresses a degree of difference between He closed the door and He slammed the door, but it's all about context and "all the enlightening (not to say emotionally moving) prose which came before He closed the door firmly."
Show, don't tell, in other words. Let the readers know the mood and motivations of the character through the prose, and not through using clumsy (and often redundant) adverbs.
King believes writers use adverbs when they are afraid. When they're afraid they aren't expressing themselves clearly, and are not getting the point across to the reader. Banish that fear. Have faith in your own writing (and in the reader's own imagination/intelligence) that the point is getting across.
DO NOT, EVER, EVER, use adverbs in dialogue attribution. It gets tiresome and detracts the reader from the actual dialogue.
"Hello!" he shouted loudly. How else is he going to shout?
"Oh, hi," she replied meekly. Yes, I imagine she is meek, with someone bellowing a hello at her so loudly.
DON'T DO IT!
Ok, lesson over for today.
There's so much more I want to pass on about this book, it's quite brilliant. If you don't own it, buy it. Read it and read it again. Then eat it.
This thread is now open for discussion on adverbs and the craft of writing economic, but lively, evocative prose.
Cheers!
Lou
If you haven't read this book, read it. NOW! I'm currently reading it for the third time and each time I read it I swear I absorb a bit of his soul into mine. That bloke knows what he's talking about.
I love his take on adverbs, and he puts it all in such a way that is so bloody easy to comprehend. None of this bollocks that a lot of "writing manuals" tend to spout. This is good stuff (and a fun read) straight from the horse's mouth (King, not Camilla).
As the thread title says: He closed the door firmly. Spot the evil adverb and banish it from your prose. As King states, it expresses a degree of difference between He closed the door and He slammed the door, but it's all about context and "all the enlightening (not to say emotionally moving) prose which came before He closed the door firmly."
Show, don't tell, in other words. Let the readers know the mood and motivations of the character through the prose, and not through using clumsy (and often redundant) adverbs.
King believes writers use adverbs when they are afraid. When they're afraid they aren't expressing themselves clearly, and are not getting the point across to the reader. Banish that fear. Have faith in your own writing (and in the reader's own imagination/intelligence) that the point is getting across.
DO NOT, EVER, EVER, use adverbs in dialogue attribution. It gets tiresome and detracts the reader from the actual dialogue.
"Hello!" he shouted loudly. How else is he going to shout?
"Oh, hi," she replied meekly. Yes, I imagine she is meek, with someone bellowing a hello at her so loudly.
DON'T DO IT!
Ok, lesson over for today.
There's so much more I want to pass on about this book, it's quite brilliant. If you don't own it, buy it. Read it and read it again. Then eat it.This thread is now open for discussion on adverbs and the craft of writing economic, but lively, evocative prose.
Cheers!
Lou
