Pete Prown's Blog - Posts Tagged "grammar"
DANGER: Adverbs Dead Ahead!
DANGER: ADVERBS AHEAD!
Even the best novelists have grammatical hangups (probably lots of them, actually), but one area that requires all writers' attention is the overuse of adverbs. Adverbs, as you know, are modifiers that make verbs and adjectives sound richer and more complex.
"Sue just went shopping and bought an extremely beautiful necklace."
"Joe quickly ran down the street and saw a particularly nasty accident."
Here, we have adverbs like "extremely," "quickly," and "particularly" (many adverbs end in "ly," but certainly not all). In the throes of creative writing, we might use lots of adverbs to flesh out the story on the page, but as we edit, it's often best to remove many of them, simply for the reason that your story doesn't need 'em. They just clog up sentences and make more work for the reader. Certainly use adverbs when they are needed or really sharpen an idea or image; just not constantly.
So our lesson is simply this: be alert when you edit your own work. As much as we all fall in love with our own writing, it's best to be a tough editor and make your sentences as simple, clean, and effective as possible. And that, YA writers, can be aided by the prudent removal of overly flowery adverbs. Okay – you can delete "overly."
You get the point.
Even the best novelists have grammatical hangups (probably lots of them, actually), but one area that requires all writers' attention is the overuse of adverbs. Adverbs, as you know, are modifiers that make verbs and adjectives sound richer and more complex.
"Sue just went shopping and bought an extremely beautiful necklace."
"Joe quickly ran down the street and saw a particularly nasty accident."
Here, we have adverbs like "extremely," "quickly," and "particularly" (many adverbs end in "ly," but certainly not all). In the throes of creative writing, we might use lots of adverbs to flesh out the story on the page, but as we edit, it's often best to remove many of them, simply for the reason that your story doesn't need 'em. They just clog up sentences and make more work for the reader. Certainly use adverbs when they are needed or really sharpen an idea or image; just not constantly.
So our lesson is simply this: be alert when you edit your own work. As much as we all fall in love with our own writing, it's best to be a tough editor and make your sentences as simple, clean, and effective as possible. And that, YA writers, can be aided by the prudent removal of overly flowery adverbs. Okay – you can delete "overly."
You get the point.
