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I have a pet peeve as a reader, as an editor, and as a writer. I would love to take all adverbs and march them out of town pied-piper style. To steal a quote attributed to Mark Twain, "Adverbs are the tool of the lazy writer." I couldn't agree more.

When I first started taking my writing seriously, I'd get rejection letter after rejection letter. Most often I was told, "Show, don't tell." I couldn't understand why everything I wrote told a story rather than showed it... until I stopped to really look at the language I was using. Adverbs were everywhere. It was horrible. Yes, I can admit, I was a big offender. I started to take out those adverbs, replacing them with descriptive text. BOOM! My stories started to get published.

Take this sentence, for example:

Ex) "Don't tell him I'm here," Mary said quietly.

Okay, so the readers need to know that Mary is talking quietly. In this example, the reader is simply told. But look at how you can show the reader, and make your story that much stronger.

Ex) "Don't tell him I'm here." Mary's voice was almost inaudible.

Here's another example of a no-no:

Ex) Bill ran quickly through the forest.

Boring! How about this?

Ex) Bill took off like a gazelle, whipping past the looming oak trees.

By taking out the adverbs, you're forced to be more descriptive, which fleshes out your story and gives editors the "show" they're looking for.

The next time you finish a short story, novel, essay... whatever, use this little trick. Do a search for all words ending in "ly." Eradicate those adverbs and I promise you, your work will be better for it.

Learn more about this author, Meghan Fatras.
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