My 2 Cents

During the editing process for Emmy’s Heart, I learned that adverbs should be kept to a minimum. In fact, I had so many in my first draft that she highlighted every single word that ended with ly and I had to go back and rework the sentence. I did it, of course. I’m new at this whole author thing and appreciate all the help I can get. But I’m here to ask you, what is wrong with adverbs. I love them. Ask anyone I know, I use them all the time. I use them so much my son has picked them up.

Me: Cam, are you done with your chicken nuggets?
Cam: Clearly.

And now all of the people who think their writing is better than everyone else’s will be saying that you shouldn’t write the way you speak and blahh, blahh, blahh. Last time I checked, writing was a form of expression. A way to put your soul out there, a way to fulfill a never ending compulsion to spill your guts to random strangers. So why can I not add in words that I like? It just gets my goat when I read people smashing the way others write. A great deal of the writing community is what I have classified as writing snobs. So quick to criticize someone for having too many adverbs, or telling and not showing. You want to know what the really funny part is? 99% of the writing snobs that I know, are NOT published. So let me get this straight? You, who are not published want to say there is something wrong with a book that has sold millions of copies? The only time it’s okay to do that is in a crit group where someone has flat out said, help me, I need your opinion. Because, folks, when it comes right down to it, great writing is a matter of opinion. Numbers are black and white. Words are gray. There are fifteen ways to say something and ten to spell it. One person can read something and think it is crap while another will have tears streaming down their face at the perfection of it all.

We all have our opinions and more often than not, they are welcomed and appreciated, especially from one writer to another. But perhaps sometimes, people just need to be encouraged.