The Lowly Adverb
Don't cut adverbs. Use them wisely. (yes, intentionally)
A couple of weeks back one of my writing accountability mates presented us with advice on cutting adverbs, echoing the advice of Stephen King, who famously said “the road to hell is paved with adverbs.” By deleting unnecessary filler -ly words, she reminded us, we can strengthen our prose. Hence: “She ran quickly.”
Equally effective is when writers replace weak verbs with strong ones. “She looked at him strangely. She glared at him.”
However, as an early member of the Society for the Preservation of the Adverb, allow me a few words in defense of the lowly modifier.
According to Ben Blatt’s book Nabokov’s Favorite Color is Mauve, it is true that authors using fewer adverbs tend to have books considered ‘great.’ He even goes further: authors’ greatest works - F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby or Toni Morrison’s Beloved - contain fewer adverbs than their lesser-read or lesser-known books.
At the pinnacle of the literary world, the standout books indeed rely on fewer adverbs. And even within each author’s own works, the books that use the least adverbs have been the most successful.
But great authors do use adverbs. By Blatt’s calculation, Ernest Hemingway used them 5.8 percent of the time in his books. Stephen King has a 5.5 percent rate.
King once commented that Twilight author Stephenie Meyer’s use of adverbs is “not very good.” But statistically, Meyer uses the qualifiers at a rate of 5.7 percent – less than Hemingway.
The difference, of course, is the way they are used. It’s important to choose our words carefully, but don’t cut adverbs from your life entirely (see what I did there?). In short, the best adverbs are the ones you barely notice.
My awareness of these nifty helpers reaches back to my dad, a grammar policeman. If my dad asked: “How are you?” Woe to those unwitting souls who answered: “I’m good.”
My dad would wince: “I know you’re good. God made you. I asked how you were feeling today.”
If someone waved and cheerfully wished him adieu with: “Drive Careful!” my dad would mutter back: “-ly!”
Don’t even get me started on: “Eat healthy!” (“What does that taste like?”)
If nothing else, one legitimate use of adverbs is to convey character in your prose. The persnickety person uses them very differently from the casual character, who might eschew them entirely.
When adverbs add meaning
When used correctly, adverbs can add nuance and subtle meaning to a sentence, providing extra context that would otherwise be lost:
She goes to close the door but then through the narrowest crack, says, not unkindly, … (Maggie O’Farrell in Hamnet)
“Not unkindly” adds a layer that a single verb couldn’t easily replace.
[Actually, in grammar parlance, O’Farrell’s use of the double negative ‘not unkindly’ is called a litotes (a double negative used for emphasis).]
Adverbs can also be powerful tools to help writers to convey emotions, tone, and pacing. You know, like when a sentence just needs an extra beat.
“She raced” is entirely appropriate in most cases. But adding “She ran as quickly as she could” slows down the sentence to add tension.
Adverbs can also add emotion: “The light was viciously bright.”
If Vladimir Nabokov had written that the light was blinding, he could have used a physical beat: The prisoner squinted in the blinding light. Instead, he gives the light a personality and an intent, as in that light wanted to hurt the prisoner.
Adverbs can help with tone, too, adding nuance and emotion.
“He answered the question slowly.”
The adverb “slowly” adds depth to the action, giving us insight into the speaker’s behavior. You can almost feel the hairs on the back of your neck rising.
Without the lowly adverb, we’re left with a factual: “He answered the question.”
Adverbs give subtle cues, which can be crucial for storytelling. Without them, the prose can feel flat or lack emotional engagement.
The key is finding the right balance. As Ben Blatt advises: Sparse, well-chosen adverbs have more impact than many bland or redundant ones. But, he adds: “High-frequency adverbs used in popular fiction often correlate with readability and immediacy rather than poor craft.” That is why E.L. James of Fifty Shades of Grey fame tops the -ly charts at 155 per 10,000 words.
Be off now and write on - effectively.
Sources:
Photo by Fiona Murray-deGraaff on Unsplash
https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Nabokovs-Favorite-Word-Is-Mauve/Ben-Blatt/9781501105395
https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/should-you-never-use-adverbs-usage-advice
https://www.washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com/bookreview/nabokovs-favorite-word-is-mauve
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinknudson/2017/04/30/book-review-nabokovs-favorite-word-is-mauve/
John W. Langley (1927 - 2019)