Adverbs get no respect.
In case you've forgotten your English grammar, an adverb is a word that modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb. Adverbs usually tell us when, where, or how an action is performed. (Are you asleep yet?)
Often adverbs are "ly" words:
- She ran slowly.
- He quickly ate his lunch.
- She really liked him.
- He traveled adventurously.
But not always:
- She drove fast.
- He never ate breakfast.
- The leaves were quite red.
- I almost traveled to Japan.
So why don't adverbs get respect? Because many people think we writers overuse them.
Look at the some of the sentences above. Could we use a more vivid verb instead of an adverb? Are we being lazy writers?
- She raced. (Instead of drove quickly.)
- He wolfed his lunch. (Instead of quickly ate.)
- He skipped breakfast. (Instead of never ate.)
- The leaves exploded with red. (Instead of were quite red.)
Not an adverb in sight, and we used strong verbs: raced, wolfed, skipped, exploded.
Try this at home: go through a story you're writing and highlight every adverb. Then see if you can replace the verb and adverb ("drove quickly") with a strong and vivid verb ("raced").
Of course, we don't want to cut every adverb. We really, really, really don't want to do that!
