“Adverbs are the worst.”
“Cut every single adverb out of your writing, they can all be replaced.”
“A published work shouldn’t have any adverbs.”
Um, what?
These are just a few examples of the things I’ve read recently regarding adverbs, and I have to say. Not cool.
For some reason, adverbs seem to be the mark of an inexperienced writer. But… they’re not. Adverbs, when used correctly (as with any other grammatical structure or writing skill) can bring your story to a whole new level. So, if you’re a writer who’s been listening to this advice and trying to follow it like a rule, I encourage you not to.
It is true that some adverbs are unnecessary and mess with the pace of your writing. It is true that some adverbs, when used incorrectly, bring down the quality of your writing. It is true that some adverbs are redundant and cane be deleted. Some adverbs are unnecessary, but not all.
What purpose does it serve? Let’s take the sentence, “She cried.” Just from reading that, you get the feeling that she is probably crying out of sadness. That’s just the first thing that you think of. So, “She cried sadly,” is redundant. In that case, you don’t need the adverb. However, “She cried happily,” is different. The adverb, in this case, changes the meaning of the sentence. It gives you information that, without any adverb, you wouldn’t have gotten from this sense alone.
To me, at least, adverbs are best used when they change the meaning or add more information to something. Editing with adverbs is hard, because sometimes you don’t know if the meaning is implied or if you know because you’re the person that wrote the sentence. Tread carefully with your adverbs; it isn’t necessary to delete all of the, but you don’t want to have too many, either.
In some other cases, adverbs can simply be combined with their verbs to create a stronger verb. “They ran,” is just a person running. “They ran slowly,” can be corrected to, “They jogged.” “They ran quickly,” can be changed to, “They sprinted.” In this case, the adverb does change the meaning, but the meaning can be conveyed with one strong verb instead of a weaker verb and an adverb.
This is also a touchy subject; look for places where the “verb+adverb” can be combined, but don’t push it too hard. Off the top of my mind, I can’t think of any replacement verb for, “She cried happily.” So the adverb is necessary. (If you have to use a thesaurus or google it, I would avoid the combination; your readers may have to search it as well and so the flow of the reading is disrupted.)
Adverbs are necessary in some but not all cases. Don’t try to delete it if it belongs in your story.