Write Better: Tips and tricks

Adverbs

I'm just diving in here, because this is important. I've seen a lot of nasty things said about adverbs, and even to writers who use them!

Adverbs modify or qualify:

adjectives

verbs

another adverb

a clause (word group)

Adverbs can tell us:

Place

Time

Manner

Degree/Circumstance

Certainty

Cause

Does using an adverb make me a lazy writer?

No!

Using a lot of adverbs/using the wrong adverb is where things start to get noticeable, and any time it sounds like you're reading writing and not a story is where problems arise.

Someone told me my story won't attract attention from publishers and agents because I have adverbs.

Not true.

Someone said I abuse adverbs. How many is too many?

There isn't an exact number adverbs-to-word-count ratio.

If it gets to the point where people are noticing that you use adverbs as opposed to noticing that you have a cool story-line, you might have too many adverbs.

It's also possible to have too many adverbs in chapter one, then be fine for the next five chapters, then have a big group of them again, etc. They're not always spaced evenly. 

Not all adverbs end in -ly!

...But most* anti-adverb advocates are totally blind to those words, even if the writers are using those words more than -ly words. From what I've witnessed, it's generally because they've forgotten how to identify an adverb (and only remember the obvious -ly from school and writing rule blogs). When people are ranting about destroying adverbs, realize that they're probably just referencing -ly.

*Pay attention to who your advice is coming from. Some people know what they're talking about. A lot of people just think they do.

It's like grandma telling you not to eat chocolate, when what she really means is milk chocolate. Dark chocolate is totally cool, yo. Health benefits and all. Dr. Oz said so. Instead, she waggles her finger at you and grumbles on about chocolate and then your younger cousins start repeating that chocolate is bad for you because they heard it from a credible source (grandma).

I can't tell you how many times I've seen people circle/cross-out/slash every single -ly word they see in a chapter, while leaving every other adverb intact. They do this without mercy, and then tell the poor writer that adverbs are a sin and you should never ever use them and this is a rule and only the greats can break it. Which you aren't, sorry, so listen to them because this is how the world works.

Truth is, it's not. Most books don't succeed or fail because of adverbs alone. That misconception gets encouraged when you have agents and editors saying that if they see an adverb on page one, they automatically trash the manuscript, but when asked about Book A by an author they accepted, it's suddenly cool. Parts of speech matter, but how you use them does, too! That's why we want to be smart about them.