In Defense of Adverbs

[Ireth]

I've noticed that some of the writers on this site seem rather strongly opposed to the use of adverbs in prose (not mentioning any names; you know who you are), especially when it comes to dialogue tags. I feel compelled to defend the use of adverbs in response to several comments.

One of the general guidelines of effective writing can be summed up as "say more with less". Consider this example:

A. "Are you sure you're okay?" she asked softly.

B. "Are you sure you're okay?" she asked, her voice soft.

Same idea, but A has two fewer words than B. Some would say B is better, but A accomplishes the exact same purpose in fewer words. Discuss.

 

[Steerpike]

"Are you sure you're OK?" she whispered.

 

[Benjamin Clayborne]

"Are you sure you're OK?" she whispered.

Ah, but then you run afoul of those who think non-"said" dialogue tags should be avoided.

I think in practical fact, a mixture of adverbs, non-"said" dialogue tags, and assisting descriptive phrases ("..., her voice soft") is probably the best balance between giving the writer flexibility and avoiding annoying the largest proportion of people. There aren't very many people who utterly object to even a single adverb or non-"said" tag.

 

[Steerpike]

She leaned down and whispered in his ear. "Are you OK?"

No tag needed in the greater context. When you're dealing with a single sentence in a vacuum that's harder to show. I do think a non-said tag can be used when intending to convey something not apparent from the words themselves, or the context.

 

[squishybug87]

I love adverbs, I really do. One of my challenges is cutting down on their usage, so the ones that I do end up using are effective. Can you use a character's actions to convey tone? Or would that be too much inferring?

Eg: She touched his shoulder and asked, 'Are you ok?'

In that example, would you just assume that her voice is soft? I have seen other people say that this is one of the ways to avoid excess tags and adverb usage.

 

[Steerpike]

Can you use a character's actions to convey tone? Or would that be too much inferring?

Eg: She touched his shoulder and asked, 'Are you ok?'

You can. In that particular example, I wouldn't assume the voice was soft, unless there was some greater context that made me think it.

 

[Philip Overby]

I have a love/hate relationship with adverbs. When used sparingly (see what I did there), they can not be too problematic in my view. Steve Erikson (who I reference a lot) uses adverbs sometimes, but his language is so, what's the word, "entrancing" that you forget about it.

I think using no adverbs can be quite the challenge. However, it's always better to find a stronger verb to replace the adverb if you can. As Steerpike mentioned above, using "whispered" instead of "spoke softly" gives the same vibe. If you want to show anger in someone's voice, you don't have to say "said angrily." Use another stronger verb such as hissed, spat, or growled. The danger of this can be overusing certain verbs. If everyone is hissing and growling at each other, it sounds like you're in a zoo. Sometimes it's easier to just use "said" and let the words or actions of the characters depict what they're feeling.

Example:

1. "I'm fine," John said.
2. "I'm fine," John said. He walked over to the desk, grabbed the lamp, and hurled it against the wall.

It's obvious John is not fine.

Context can also play a great role:

"Are you still mad that you missed the baseball game?" Lisa plugged the TV back in.

"I'm fine," John said.

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

It's not that adverbs are all bad. It's that they tend to be way overused in prose because thats the way people talk. Having even a moderate amount of adverbs in your text can suck the life out of the story for your reader. In most cases, replacing an adverb with a stronger word or phrase strengthens the impact.

Examples:

"I adore you," she said lovingly.

He swung the axe expertly; the crowd screamed as the black knight's head rolled into the street.

"Kill the boy," he said coldly. Let the body rot."

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Nothing really wrong with those sentences but they can be written much better.

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"I adore you,"she said, her hands caressing the outline of his jaw.

He swung the axe, spinning with a fluid motion; the crowd screamed as the black knight's head rolled into the street.

"Kill the boy," he said, through squinting eyes, cold and full of menace. "Let the body rot."

In the examples above its hard not to see that replacing the adverbs with more active, concrete words & phrases adds a degree of depth. They each tell how an action was performed. The key point here is that replacing adverbs can give your prose depth & energy that you just can't achieve with adverb use.

There are cases,in my opinion, where adverbs are fine, in sentences where the adverb use is absolutely necessary, but these are few. Ask yourself a couple of questions. Does the adverb really add that much? Also, is it impossible to find a stronger word or phrase? If yes to both then you've found one of those rare instances. I strive to use zero, the exception being in dialogue.

Sincerely,

Confirmed Hater of Adverbs

 

[Lorna]

Over-using adverbs, particularly in dialogue, (I had conversations with segments of speech ending in 'ly' 'ly' 'ly' all done a page- eeuugh) was one of my biggest flaws when I came to this site. Since I've started replacing them, my text reads alot better and it's helped improve my characterisation as well by focuing on facial expressions, body language and made me more creative in finding metaphors for people's stances.

 

[shangrila]

The first basic editing I was ever taught involved deleting any adverbs used for dialogue. It did help, somewhat, but I think it just comes down to quantity. Doing it too much will lose the impact and make it boring or, even worse, annoying.

Personally, I always prefer to show. Like Phil's example, if one of my characters is angry, he'll do something to show it. I feel that's more effective; I don't know about you guys, but when I read dialogue I always imagine it however I feel. Adverbs don't do a whole lot for me in the books I read, especially since they usually come AFTER I've read whatever they said.

 

[Ghost]

Discuss.

How imperative.

I like adverbs. Being a fan of the lone "said" or an action lead-in, I don't use adverbs much in dialogue tags. I can tolerate reading them. A lot of readers can, if popular books are any indication.

Sometimes adverbs are the easy way out. Using a stronger verb often makes an image more dynamic.

While a handful of -ly adverbs show up with annoying frequency in my writing ("usually," "really," "only," and "normally" account for the majority), my real problem is with adverbs that don't end in -ly. I've got a running list of words like these: some, just, any, very, too, quite, so, well, even, never, ever, every, always, almost, maybe, perhaps, etc. They're horrible and they've infested my prose. The problem is that, in my case, they're add to the word count without adding meaning. Sigh. I'm working on it.

 

[ShortHair]

As always, moderation is the best guide. Your work sounds funny if you use too many adverbs, and it sounds funny if you don't use any at all.

If you find yourself using lots of adverbs, look at the verbs or adjectives they're modifying. Could you use a different, more specific, word and drop the adverb? Think about exactly what you want to say.

If your tone sounds flat, try adding an adverb for color.