Death to adverbs!

[fushingfeef]

Ever since reading "On Writing", I am reluctant to ever use an adverb in the written format! Every time I see an adverb that I've written, it's like a little Stephen King angel appears on my shoulder and says "You don't need that adverb! Strike it down!"

Has this happened to anyone else?

[Moderator]

Yes, as I am guilty of adverb proliferation in my writing and have thought to myself WWSS (what would Stephen say?) if he saw it, but continue to do it anyway. :smile2: If I was writing for publication (this doesn't count), I would be more judicious in my adverb usage. On second thought, I realize I have sometimes edited my emails to him after noticing too many adverbs. :blush:

[Brian]

After we read On Writing, I think we axed about 500 adverbs from our script. It was pathetic, and exactly what Stephen meant by "trying to hard." They suck.

-B

[Bryan James]

I kill some. The rest I just type very slowly.

~BJS

[Doc Wilson]

I took to heart his advice to quit searching for synonyms for "said". My characters immediately stopped interjecting and exclaiming.

[Bryan James]

I took to heart his advice to quit searching for synonyms for "said". My characters immediately stopped interjecting and exclaiming.

"I even try to avoid 'said' now. If someone can't follow who's saying what in my dialogue, I haven't done my job," Bryan said.

[JohnDalglish]

I took to heart his advice to quit searching for synonyms for "said". My characters immediately stopped interjecting and exclaiming.

Hi,

Indeed, me too (he said).

I can't stand premature interjection.

Long days and pleasant nights

[ChristineB]

Yes, as I am guilty of adverb proliferation in my writing and have thought to myself WWSS (what would Stephen say?) if he saw it, but continue to do it anyway. :smile2: If I was writing for publication (this doesn't count), I would be more judicious in my adverb usage. On second thought, I realize I have sometimes edited my emails to him after noticing too many adverbs. :blush:

This is just too funny Ms. Mod. I am sure I would do the exact same thing in your case. :)

You must remember SK doesn't nix ALL the adverbs in his writing and so maybe a few can stay.

What seems so funny to me is that, from my POV, it seems all english writing teachers have some pet peeve. My college english comp 1 teacher absolutely hated (I could have replaced that adverb and verb with loathed, I guess) both the "being" verbs (non-action verbs) and the pharse "there are, is, were, was" at the start of a sentence. Suffice it to say, if you had one of those in a paper for her you were automatically going to start with a C and go down from there. Now I read how SK hates adverbs, just a funny thing to me.

[XD3V0NX]

Yes, God Yes. Adverbs need to die. I don't even use them, and when I do, it's rare. But when I see someone else use an adverb in their writing, I can't help but get annoyed. I'm with you right there. Instead of Money being the root to all evil, it is Adverbs that are the root to all evil.
And another thing, Adverbs are like Satan's slaves! >x]

[Srbo]

Yeah, well, what can I do, I try to write to the best of my limited abilities since English is not my first language.

Seriously. :wink2:

[Bluey Lunger]

Ever since reading "On Writing", I am reluctant to ever use an adverb in the written format! Every time I see an adverb that I've written, it's like a little Stephen King angel appears on my shoulder and says "You don't need that adverb! Strike it down!"

Has this happened to anyone else?

i noticed sk's adverb use before i read on writing, and after reading that section, and maybe before, i'd noticed the use of adverbs by others, sometimes to good effect. but too often it sounded like satire, comedic relief, something.

upgraded my offline 'puter, new word program. i like using the tool that tells me how many words i've got going, check to see what the grammar/spellcheck says. the old program, microsoft word 95 had some issues that bugged me, but this new one, other than being politically correct--it don't like it when i use words like "stewardess" or "the little guy", or the word "blonde" standing alone.

it also has a problem w/contractions. so when you imagine sk standing over your shoulder saying "you don't need need that adverb!" i have to wonder what's his take on contractions? seems like they must be present in dialogue, but how about the rest of it--and that's something i haven't taken notice of, but plan on being aware of it the next time i pick up an sk story.

[PatInTheHat]

Now I have certain instincts, and I wholly lack certain others. (Is that "wholly" in the right place?) For instance, I am dead to adverbs; they cannot excite me. To misplace an adverb is a thing which I am able to do with frozen indifference; it can never give me a pang. . . . There are subtleties which I cannot master at all--they confuse me, they mean absolutely nothing to me--and this adverb plague is one of them.
(Mark Twain, "The Contributors' Club," The Atlantic Monthly, June 1880)

I think I'm absolutely positively, and quite possibly cheerfully even boastfully, a freakin' junky:cool2:!
(I don't even know wholly what the place is, much less if it's in exactly the right place:blush:)