Write Away

I practiced dropping adverbs when I learned that they were a sign of weak writing, but I think that living by a rigid set of rules makes your writing weaker. You fall into a formula, and I think it leads to writer's block. Dropping adverbs is a good exercise, but I think you could also make an exercise out of using lots of adverbs. Writers supposedly love words so why do we want to throw out an entire category of words? Adverbs wouldn't exist if there wasn't a need for them. Plus, a computer app doesn't understand art. It doesn't understand that certain words in certain combinations can send a shiver down your spine and make you clutch a book to your chest and smile up at the ceiling and then read it again three times. Also, there are different types of stories and adverbs can be used to establish all different kinds of tones. I think they work best in comedy and genre fiction, things that are meant to entertain.

To me, telling writers that they have to throw out the adverbs is like telling painters that they can't use red. "Red is a color invented for timid painters. The painter is using red to tell us that they don't trust blue to get the picture across. I am right about this because I made a lot of money painting blue things and you haven't."

Saying that "good writing" has to be a certain way is what kills creativity, in my opinion.