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Do adverbs still exist?

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Penny Lovestedt:
I am not a writer, but I am a voracious reader. What has happened to adverbs? Has the Great Editor in the sky declared them null and void? If so, I missed the memo. Rick Riordan is one of the worst offenders I have run across lately--in both his children's books (which is really bothersome since he is a middle school teacher) and the Tres Navarre murder mysteries, but they seem to be missing across several genres. I haven't read all of Jim's books, but he seems to get it most of the time.

Thrythlind:
I'm not sure how you mean "missing" adverbs are never a requirement...I'm pretty sure I use them, but I also prefer to use extended descriptions of action rather than condense things into a single adverb....and then at other times I use the adverb...depending on the situation...but yeah, I have never heard anything about adverbs ever being required, so I'm really not sure what you're saying

Gruud:
Oh, I have seen plenty of writing advice that says to dispense with them all together, and similar statements that apply to adjectives, although they are still a bit more tolerated ...

Advice that I, whether for good or for ill, have quite consciously chosen to ignore.

I'm not sure what else I'd be left with ... nouns and verbs and prepositions?  ;D

It's all a part of the movement to write leaner prose, to always show and never tell, to write stories that play in the readers's head just like a movie, since the pundits say that's all they can handle these days.

Whether or not I will be punished for using all parts of speech remains to be seen, but I've found that I just cannot write without them.

I need those adverbs and adjectives and gerunds (on my!) no less for what they add to the picure I paint than for the lyric and rhythym of my sentences.

At least for me, without them I might as well be writing "See Jane run" ...

meg_evonne:

--- Quote from: Penny Lovestedt on December 04, 2011, 05:47:14 AM ---I am not a writer, but I am a voracious reader. What has happened to adverbs? Has the Great Editor in the sky declared them null and void?
--- End quote ---

Yes. Why? The best explanation I've heard was from Brett Anthony Johnston, National Book Award Winner and head of Creative Writing at Harvard, who said, "If you are using an adverb, you haven't found the right verb." and he is right. This is also a rule (remember all rules can be broken and should be, but in general) that is in Self-Editing for Fiction Writers. Also, the editors all are on the same page.

Yes, I didn't understand this over five years ago when it crossed my learning curve. I mean, how can you write without them, right?

Here is an example of why and I'd love to see your examples if you disagree. It can be a real challenge to find that right verb, but when you do? That short cut with the 'ly' simply can't compare.

I recently did a bit of editing on a friend's wonderful quick sparked first-draft paragraph. Remember first drafts are, 'get her done, get it down'.  The line was 'I slowly and deliberately relaxed my hands on the steering wheel' or something like that. Get  the feel of this alternative.... 'knuckle, by knuckle, I peeled my hands...' To me the second hits my gut. The first reports it to me. As a writer, you go for the gut hit, not the report. (Subject to all-rules-are-meant-to-be-broken rule.) And that is in all genres, including literary.

Like I said, post a challenge and let us have at them with alternatives and then we can look the results.

Penny Lovestedt:
Actually, what I was referring to was using adjective forms rather than adverb forms. For example: He drove slow, rather than he drove slowly.

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