Too Many Adverbs Spoils The Soup

Walking the streets alone at night you hear foot steps creeping up behind you. You look back, but no one is there. Picking up your pace you take your keys out of your pocket hoping to get into your car as soon as possible. The steps behind you get louder and sound like they're coming closer. A cool chill runs down your spine, your heart begins to race, and your breathing is uneven. Although you cannot see it, you know what's lurking within the shadows because you've heard the horror stories from others who have been attacked. It's every writer's greatest fear; the adverb.

Some of the most successful novelists such as Stephen King talk about the perils of adverbs and how they detract from a good story. Adverbs are a crutch rookie writers cling onto for dear life. I have previously mentioned my concerns about the length of my novel and I think eliminating most if not all of my adverbs might be a fair solution to chop down the word count without compromising the integrity of the story line. Unfortunately I am more than halfway through the self-editing process at this point, a grueling task at best, so I have an idea for how to skim my novel for adverbs: I'll do a word search for the letters "ly" because I have a theory that most adverbs end in "ly"(slowly, softly, deeply, sadly).

I never had a strong feeling towards adverbs one way or the other, but apparently the writing community at large feels negatively towards them. Not that I am a conformist by any means, but to get into the game you have to first play by the rules and then when you have made a name for yourself you can start to break the rules. So adverbs, nothing personal but I just think we'd be better off as friends. We had good times and I'll never forget the way you gently, softly, and deeply loved me but I need to grow and move on. You're holding me back. It's not you, well yes it is you and not me.