Saturday, March 2, 2019

Adverbs, Stephen King, and the Rules


Let’s talk a bit about grammar rules.

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King,

The adverb is not your friend. 

Adverbs … are words that modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. They’re the ones that usually end in -ly. Adverbs, like the passive voice, seem to have been created with the timid writer in mind…SK.

My biggest challenge as a writer is grammar. I feel like I have a grammar disability. I love to write. I love to read. In fact, I have read thousands of books over the years; too bad I haven’t been able to grasp grammar by osmosis. But I push on, give it my all, and pray my editors won’t give up on me, because I am a great story teller, (hint, hint, shameless plug).

Every time I write, some of these rules snap me out of flow and say, ‘wait, you can’t use adverbs remember!’  and I have to stop and try to re-work the sentence to fit. Many times, I give up and tell myself I’ll fix it before editing.

Imagine my shock when I decided to re-read one of my all-time favorites, The Talisman by King and Peter Straub, and I noticed this page littered with adverbs.

12 of them on page 51
Quickly
Really
Wanly
Slowly
Sharply
Mostly
Utterly rational and utterly lucid (back to back in the same sentence)
Hardly
Quietly
Barely
Clearly

Okay so what does this mean to me? Or you? Uh…rules are meant to be broken!

Also, I don’t think Mr. King was being a stickler, but perhaps teaching newbies to pay attention to their writing? If I’m lucky, he’ll get wind of this little blog and come chime in 😊  Yes wishful thinking, but stranger things have happened. Ramsey Campbell wished me a happy birthday! FAN GIRLING

Anyways I digress. I found this great blog from someone with a strong grasp in the art of grammar, and it helped me understand a bit more about the rules.

I hope this helps any others who tackle the same struggles I do. Drop a line, let me know what you think.

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