Adverbs are words that modify the meaning of verbs, adjectives or other adverbs. These are often called the “ly” words but it’s not a universal rule that adverbs must end in “ly”. Adverbs are not used to modify nouns.

Adverbs are a perfectly correct part of the English language yet they are frowned on when you are writing fiction in particular. Why is that, when they do a valid job and are not grammatically incorrect?

Well, a sparing and judicious use of adverbs is actually quite acceptable, even in fiction. The problems come about when adverbs are over-used because it’s a sign that the verb they are modifying is too generic or too weak for what you are trying to convey.

For example:

• “She ran around the corner.” – This is boring and it could convey just about any mood.
• “She quickly ran around the corner.” – The adverb “quickly” helps set a bit of a mood of haste or hurry.
• “She raced around the corner.” – This is a better verb choice as it no longer needs the adverb’s help to set the mood.

Adverbs are also considered a sign of “telling” the action to the reader by making the action obvious. It’s a weakness.

In the example above, “ran” is too weak a verb. It can mean too many things (a jog, a panicked run, a terrified fleeing?) and it’s too generic. Because it’s so generic, it makes the sentence almost disappear and become invisible. If that’s what is intended, it’s okay. But if you want to convey emotion or mood, it needs to be stronger.

The one real exception to this is dialogue. The characters need to speak naturally and in accordance with their word and selves and this can mean a more frequent use of adverbs.

So whenever you are tempted to use an adverb, stop and see if you can find a more descriptive verb, adverb or adjective to use instead. Is there a single word that can convey your meaning instead? If you don’t know one off the top of your head, try looking up synonyms or looking in a dictionary. It’s worthwhile.

When you’re almost ready to submit, take the time to search your manuscript for words ending in “ly” and see how many are left. Can you replace any of them with a stronger, more specific, word?

The standalone ebook of Bittersweet is out today from Aspen Mountain Press!

You can get your copy here.

Be sure to let me know what you think, too.

Blurb:
Erotic chocolatier Brandon makes all sorts of tempting and tasty creations that celebrate love and sex. Too bad he’s given up on finding love for himself after his last lover told him he wasn’t worthy of a real relationship just before he dumped him.

When David picks up an order of chocolates for his best friend’s wedding, he wonders if the muscular, tattooed Brandon will taste sweet or bittersweet… After David finds out that Brandon is gay, he needs to step up and let the sexy chocolatier know he’s interested, but can he screw up the courage to do it?

Read an Excerpt here:

A few days ago, after fielding yet another question about how to do something in Word from another writer, I realized that I could write a focused, easy to understand class for writers using Word.

I’m a technical writer during the day with many, many years of Word use and I also have a background in instructional design (I write and present classes, usually on software usage).

I floated the idea briefly on Twitter and got some interest so I’m trying to judge both real interest and gather ideas of what issues writers are having so I can make sure they are addressed.

I’d like to cover Word 2003, 2007 and Mac Word (latest). I won’t cover OpenOffice or other programs because I don’t use them and they have some decent documentation of their own. I can talk about the differences between Word and Works as well.

I want to cover the following basic list of topics:

• The lay of the land in the Word User Interface
• Formatting a manuscript from scratch
• Changing existing formatting
• Creating and using templates
• Using track changes and comments
• Document file formats and what they mean
• When things go wrong and what to do
• Lots and lots of Q&A

For handouts, I’d like to give:

• Class packet with all the info in the class
• Downloadable templates for common manuscript formats

So my question to anyone reading this is what have I missed? What problems have you had that you wish you knew how to fix? What questions do you want answered?

Also, what version of Word are you using and is there interest in a class like this?

Let me know!

I’ve been pretty sick since yesterday. I’ll spare you the details but during this prolonged misery, I’ve come up with the following list of “It never fails when you’re sick” to amuse you.

1. The cats will wail outside the bedroom door most of the day because they are worried, thus you won’t get much needed sleep.
2. You will get a headache on top of digestive tract woes but can’t take meds because they are aweful coming back up and they may make nausea worse.
3. Just as you finally manage to doze off, the phone rings and it’s some your phone co trying to sell you svc. Because you bolted out of bed to get said phone, nausea will be triggered.
4. You really want to take a shower but are too unsteady for it and home alone so no rescue if you fall in the shower. Grody.
5. When you do finally venture downstairs in desperation and the inevitable happens, the cats MUST come in to witness the upchucking. You will also be unable to convince said cats that you are too busy to pet them and reassure them, no matter how much they wail.
6. Daytime tv sucks and you’re too sick to dig through movies for something better.
7. The cats will inevitably want to take a nap on your lap and/or stomach and become highly offended when you either refuse or displace them.
8. Hubby starts to feel sick too. Must share, I guess.

After much searching and research, it appears that the mysterious disappearance of widgets is not limited to me. It’s happened to other people but there’s no information from WordPress on it. The suggested work-arounds I’ve found here and there have not solved my issue.

In order to not be down for too long, I went in and modified a PHP file or two to reset the sidebar mostly the way it was. We’ll see how that goes for a while. Maybe a solution will be found that doesn’t involve a complete reset and reinstall because I’d HATE to have to do that before I’m good and ready for a site redesign.

Sigh — too many hours taken by technical issues….