Stephen King's On Writing offered a lot of good advice, and a couple of things he emphasized will likely influence my style and approach to writing. For example, after reading King’s contempt for them, I will never look at adverbs the same way.
I always thought adverbs were a necessary element to good writing. King pointed out; however, the often-ridiculous context writers use them in and their overuse in general. In his initial adverb example, “He closed the door firmly,” I could not find fault. I liked the use of “firmly” and thought it had a rightful place in the sentence. Yet after King encouraged us to focus on developing stronger context to set the tone rather than taking the easy, lazy, or fearful way out by excessive use of adverbs, I recognized the redundancy and weakness of “firmly.”
King quelled another misconception I had about writing: an obligation to use fancy vocabulary as much as possible to impress readers while, at the same time, help them to enrich their own vocabulary. While he did advocate putting vocabulary on the top shelf of our toolbox, he nevertheless discouraged us from using fifty-dollar words when less expensive, simpler ones would do and illustrated that one does not have to use complicated language to have a powerful impact.
Although I may still use an occasional adverb or periodically sprinkle elaborate words into my writing, thanks to King's advice, I will practice caution when doing so.
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Yeah, I had a similar experience after reading King's advice about adverbs. I always thought they made writing stronger. King got me thinking that perhaps adverbs are a crutch when a writer can achieve similar effects without resorting to using tons of adverbs. But, I can't help but thinking of "Lolly, Lolly, Lolly, Get you Adverbs Here!" from Schoolhouse Rock and how that cartoon advised using adverbs to spruce up your writing. Perhaps it's all about using adverbs sparingly in concert with other techniques to create context and tone.
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