Yes, I'm back again. I'm going through a bit of life upheaval at the moment, but I want to stay focused on certain life goals through the tempest, and writing is an important one. Maintaining this blog is tangential to that pursuit, but helps me by providing the illusion of accountability (i.e., no one's actually reading this but me...but that's okay!).
One of the editing tasks I have learned to perform as I read back through prose I have spewed is to identify and eliminate adverbs. Well, not
all adverbs, but as many as possible. Adverbs can weaken one's writing by acting as a "crutch" or shortcut around more effective storytelling; they tend to tell a reader how to interpret an action rather than allowing the story to show how that action should be interpreted.
Not all adverbs are bad. Some are very, very good. The key is knowing the difference, which I'm still learning. As an illustration, this passage from Douglas Adams'
Life, the Universe, and Everything contains my favorite use of an adverb of all time.
|
"It is written,'' repeated Prak, "in thirty-foot-high letters of fire on top of the Quentulus Quazgar Mountains in the land of Sevorbeupstry on the planet Preliumtarn, third out from the...''
"Sorry,'' said Arthur again, "which mountains?''
"The Quentulus Quazgar Mountains in the land of Sevorbeupstry on the planet...''
"Which land was that? I didn't quite catch it.''
"Sevorbeupstry, on the planet...''
"Sevorbe-what?''
"Oh, for heaven's sake,'' said Prak and died testily. |
That's how I want to go.