Blog
November 17, 2007 Adverbs
Part of me woke up this morning aggravated. Another
part was holding a puppy, so that part was all right.
Gingerly. It was "gingerly" that set me off. I'd been
reading, at the request of a friend, a book by a woman
who, by her own account anyway, has the ear and heart of
the publishing industry.
For several months, I have been reading group posts from
writers, some published, some not, who seem to go in
mortal terror of the lowly adverb. "Adverbs," they
tremble, "must be avoided at all costs. Adverbs will derail
all your hopes of being published. Flee them like the very
Devil himself."
Now, I've always found adverbs a good and useful tool.
They exist within the language, don't they? But it would
seem that in the climate of "show, don't tell," the poor
adverb no longer has a place.
Yet here is a writer purporting to have her finger on the
publishing pulse using the word "gingerly," and I am
annoyed. Not because someone else has been permitted
to do the impermissible, but because there is a consortium
of pundits out there intruding on my writing habits and
expression by telling me it is impermissible, in the same
arbitrary way they've now decided to reintroduce the
comma they previously banished before the last element
of a series.
And I feel it. I feel the constraint of other people's
choices as I write, making my work duller and more
self-conscious for their choices. And I am annoyed,
genuinely, profoundly, pissily--but not gingerly--annoyed.
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