I love reading Maria Popova’s Brain Pickings. I also enjoy every morsel of advice offered by Stephen King. Today, the blog had a few excerpts about the use of adverbs from King’s excellent book of advice to writers: On Writing: A Memoir on the Craft. I blogged about this book awhile back. It’s one of my top three books on the craft that every writer should own.
The adverb is not your friend….
Someone out there is now accusing me of being tiresome and anal-retentive. I deny it. 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.
Purchase the book from Amazon, here:
