Greetings all and before long it shall be a trip for an extraction. A tooth must be ripped asunder from my jaw and today's the day. To think I must pay for this onerous pleasure but hey, these chompers are pretty good for someone who's 54. Anyway, enough of that, let's send love and kudos to Marion, Anna, Jo, Shilpa, Mary and Sarah.
So whilst I await the thrill of the drill my thoughts stray to a way of sharpening up your writing. Clearly this is aimed at those who enjoy prose but it can still be useful for those who like to write articles and the like. My prey today is the humble adverb.
Now in speech it's perfectly (there's one) fine to use these. I do it a lot and I'm sure most of you do too. All those lovely words ending in ly can proliferate your writing in speech as much as they like. After all, it's quite natural. However, when it comes to writing we can cut a lot of those extraneous adverbs with a bit of craft and you often find it sharpens up the meaning quite a bit. Still, I hear you ask, show us what you mean dear Sir? Let's show some examples:
He quickly ran to the park. How about he sprinted to the park.
He usually drank at the bar. I'd rewrite this to something like He edged himself to the bar and ordered his usual.
She really liked red. How about She adored red.
Steve stealthily slid towards his target. How about Steve crept towards his target.
Sally nervously opened the door. How about Sally inhaled, nudged the door open.
Mark tentatively picked up the reply from the company. How about Mark cradled the letter from the company. (This is ok but could do better I feel)
She slowly walked up the path. She trudged up the path.
Now, I'm not saying get rid of all your adverbs. Sometimes it's quite ok to keep them, especially when they just feel right, but do have a little think about what might work that little bit better.
Well, that will do for today, time for extraction. Remember everyone, keep reading :)
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