Don Massenzio with a fascinating examination of how often famous authors use adverbs.
As writers, we are constantly (adverb) told about the misstep of using too many adverbs in our writing. I recently received the book Nabakov’s Favorite Word is Mauve, by Ben Blatt which has the first attempt to quanitfy adverb usage by authors recognized as the masters of the craft that I have seen.
So, being a numbers person, I was drawn to this article and wanted to see how my own writing stacked up to the masters in this area.
Did Stephen King live up to his quote? The book found that, out of the voluminous novels (51) that King has written, his rate of adverb usage (strictly the ones ending in ‘ly’)is about 101 per 10,000 words or right around 1%. Ernest Hemingway, who also extolled the evils of adverbs, lived up to his claim with only 80 adverbs per 10,000 words over his 10 novels. That’s only…
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Nicholas C. Rossis 
I despise adverbs and I don’t think I use them but it will be interesting to run my writing through the tools to see the numbers.
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I try to avoid them as well, even though I don’t have any strong feelings about them 😀
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I hope the tools help. Thanks for commenting.
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Adverbs are the tomato ketchup of writing. Some people squirt them over everything, others refuse to consider them at all. I was pleasantly surprised that a couple of my stories came in around the 1% mark because I will use them where it feels right, particularly in dialogue. Bacon sandwich? Deffo ketchup. A nice steak? Keep it away!
🙂
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A lovely way to put it 😀
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Great thoughts on this.
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Thanks for the useful post.
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Thank you, Michael 😀
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Thanks.
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I found this post to be most interesting.
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Thank you.
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Thank you, Jan 🙂
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Thanks again for sharing this, Nicholas.
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A pleasure, Don. Thank you for the great post 🙂
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I ran my count, and it was 1.2%. Could be worse, and I could definitely (adverb) cut some out.
However, some are useful. I’m not a ‘I hate adverbs’ person, I think a few, in the right place, are fine. It’s the overuse that is bad and makes for ‘purple prose.’
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I’m like you. Don’t hate them; just think they tend to get overused by newish writers.
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The is interesting. I agree adverbs shouldn’t be overused, but they do have their place. There is some wisdom in the saying “all things in moderation”.
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Couldn’t agree more. I, too, find there’s a time and place for everything, adverbs included 🙂
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That should be “this” is interesting. I am picky about spelling. LOL. I think the key is not to overuse adverbs.
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Lol – no worries. I could edit that if you wish 😉
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LOL. It’s okay, I’m sure people get the meaning. I’m just being picky.
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I think adverbs, just like adjectives are a part of our beautiful language, that when used correctly, enhance that beauty. Okay.okay, I have cut down greatly lol. Adverb on wrong side of down. It’s important to develop one’s own style and in my humorist, present tense writing adverbs can add significantly to the humor. Oops, that adverb just sneaked past by me.
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Lol – go for it, Micki 😀
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