Axioma
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- Posted: Sat, 18 Nov 2006 18:24:38 +0000
As the title suggests, this thread is about adverbs.
Take heed, wordslinger. Adverbs are the Devil. They are Satan, the Prince of Lies, the Adversary, the Wicked One.
As such, adverbs should be summoned only rarely and with many precautions taken. If you can avoid summoning an adverb from the Pit of Doom, do so. Unless you are a master wordslinger, treat each adverb as an unexploded bomb from the second world war. A nazi unexploded bomb, at that - I'm doing my best here to impress on you how evil adverbs are.
We are all amateur wordslingers here (if any of you have progressed beyond that level, morfe power to ye) and as such, we are constantly tempted by the Dark Spirits of Writing to summon demons, by which I mean adverbs, and place them in our stories. This should not be done unless you have given each summoning great forethought and are willing to be eternally vigilant about what those adverbs are doing behind your back. Check on them constantly - they may be multiplying.
Why are adverbs so evil, you ask? They dillute your message. They make strong writing weak, they make sharp imagery blurry, they gloss over where there should be stark contrast.
I mean, consider this scenario: You are writing a horror story in which one man, Jack, brutally kills a cheerleader with an axe.
Read the above sentence again. What have we really been told here? Not very much. Jack killed the cheerleader, we are told, and we are assured that it was brutal. My friends, this is an axe-murder, and it's so boring I could sleep.
On the other hand, if you remove the adverb and instead say that Jack chopped off both her legs at the knees and then split her lower jaw in an upward swing, that IS brutal. And it certainly is more impressive than "brutally", because "brutally" is also redundant, since it's hard to kill someone with an axe delicately.
Recognize this simple truth, my dear brothers and sisters of the Pen: Adverbs do not add detail to your stories. They obscure detail. Be strong, and keep your prose strong.
Take heed, wordslinger. Adverbs are the Devil. They are Satan, the Prince of Lies, the Adversary, the Wicked One.
As such, adverbs should be summoned only rarely and with many precautions taken. If you can avoid summoning an adverb from the Pit of Doom, do so. Unless you are a master wordslinger, treat each adverb as an unexploded bomb from the second world war. A nazi unexploded bomb, at that - I'm doing my best here to impress on you how evil adverbs are.
We are all amateur wordslingers here (if any of you have progressed beyond that level, morfe power to ye) and as such, we are constantly tempted by the Dark Spirits of Writing to summon demons, by which I mean adverbs, and place them in our stories. This should not be done unless you have given each summoning great forethought and are willing to be eternally vigilant about what those adverbs are doing behind your back. Check on them constantly - they may be multiplying.
Why are adverbs so evil, you ask? They dillute your message. They make strong writing weak, they make sharp imagery blurry, they gloss over where there should be stark contrast.
I mean, consider this scenario: You are writing a horror story in which one man, Jack, brutally kills a cheerleader with an axe.
Read the above sentence again. What have we really been told here? Not very much. Jack killed the cheerleader, we are told, and we are assured that it was brutal. My friends, this is an axe-murder, and it's so boring I could sleep.
On the other hand, if you remove the adverb and instead say that Jack chopped off both her legs at the knees and then split her lower jaw in an upward swing, that IS brutal. And it certainly is more impressive than "brutally", because "brutally" is also redundant, since it's hard to kill someone with an axe delicately.
Recognize this simple truth, my dear brothers and sisters of the Pen: Adverbs do not add detail to your stories. They obscure detail. Be strong, and keep your prose strong.
