Category Archives: adverbs

Tips about Writing from Stephen King

Posted on April 5, 2025 | Leave a comment

Stephen King, the King of Horror, has written dozens of fictional bestsellers, many of which have become blockbuster movies.  He also wrote a book, On Writing, telling how he writes.  Here are some of his ideas.

From his own experience, King believes a writer’s job is to recognize two previously unrelated ideas and to make something new from them.

Writers write their first drafts for themselves, to tell themselves a story.  When they rewrite, they take out everything that is not part of the story.

Writers shouldn’t “dress up” their natural short-word vocabulary with long words.  They should use the first words that come into their heads.

You don’t need to write in complete sentences all the time.

Avoid passive verbs.  Timid writers use passive verbs because they seem safe.

Forget using adverbs.

Fear leads to bad writing.

Use “said.”

To make possessive nouns, add apostrophe S every time.

Easy-to-read books contain lots of white space and dialog.

To be a good writer, do two things:  read a lot and write a lot.

If you don’t have time to read a lot, you don’t have the time or the know-how to write well.

To learn what not to do, read bad writing.

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Posted in adverbs, apostrophes, fear of writing, fiction writing, fragments, good writing v. bad writing, how to write better, passive verbs, possessive nouns, practice reading skills, practice writing skills, revising first drafts, said, short words, writing tips

Ever hear of a flat adverb?

Posted on March 3, 2025 | Leave a comment

One commonly heard kind of flat adverb is an adverb which is identical to its adjective.  No -ly is added to the adjective form.  Examples include

  • He drives too slow.
  • That midfielder runs fast.
  • The student arrived late to class.
  • She dressed smart for the job interview.

adult couple in discussionAnother common kind of flat adverb has no -ly form.  Some of the adverbs we use the most have no -ly form, such as

  • I am not ready for bed.
  • I always eat breakfast.
  •  Go now before it rains.

Flat adverbs with no -ly form are acceptable in standard English usage.  Flat adverbs identical to adjectives are growing in acceptance, but are not universally accepted.

I suspect older people, who were taught grammar rigorously, startle when they hear younger people drop the -ly on some adverbs.  And I suspect younger people, whose grammar education was not rigorous, are not aware there is another way to say, “He ran quick as can be.”

English is a living language, and like all living things, grows, changes, and adapts.  American English has become less formal than British English and less formal than the English of past generations of Americans.

I see two problems with flat adverbs.  One is an older generation judging a younger generation as poorly educated if the younger people drop the -ly on adverbs.  Since usually it’s an older generation hiring and promoting a younger generation, using flat adverbs during interviews and emails could reflect badly on younger applicants.

Another problem is what the SAT and ACE expect of students taking those tests.  Standard English changes, but slowly (not slow).

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Posted in adverbs

Write first, revise second, third, fourth, and edit last

Posted on March 27, 2023 | Leave a comment

Revising and editing are distinct actions.

Revising means changing text in significant ways, such as adding or deleting words, sentences, paragraphs or even whole scenes.  Revising means changing weak verbs to stronger, specific verbs.  Revising means changing sentence order or sentence beginnings or combining sentences or separating too many ideas in one sentence.  Revising means making big changes and should be done before editing.

Editing means polishing text in subtle ways, such as changing punctuation, spelling, and choice of synonyms and antonyms.  Editing means deleting most -ly adverbs, many adjectives, and obvious information.  Editing means making small changes, sometimes stylistic changes, and should be done after revising.

Which are revising and which are editing?

revising editing
Deleting backstory from the beginning of text ✔
Using simple Anglo-Saxon vocabulary instead of longer, more complicated words ✔
Replacing abstract nouns with concrete verbs ✔
Deleting vague, qualifying words (e.g. some, never) ✔
Deleting “that” except when needed for clarity ✔
Combining sentences to delete unnecessary words ✔
Adding information for clarity ✔
Using “said” instead of “told,” “related,” “cried,” and other words saying how a person spoke ✔
Replacing forms of the verb “to be” with specific verbs, action verbs if possible ✔ ✔
Rewriting sentence beginnings for variety ✔
Replacing most compound sentences or compound predicates with complicated simple sentences ✔
Deleting overused words like “so,” “then,” “just” and “like” ✔
Rewriting conclusions to add meatier ideas ✔
In dialog between two people, not identifying who is speaking for each line of dialog ✔
Writing direct dialog rather than indirect dialog. ✔
Calculating words per sentence to keep within 15 to 20 words on average. ✔
Looking for the kind of grammar mistakes you often make, such as run-ons, and fixing them. ✔
Showing, not telling. ✔

A mistake student writers make is to edit as they write, losing the flow of their thoughts.  It’s better to keep going, even though you know you spelled a word wrong and are tempted to look it up.  Writing is harder than editing which is why writers are tempted to edit as they go.  This is particularly true of perfectionists.

Editing before revising is a waste of time.  Good revising will delete many early edits.  Write first, revise second and third and forth, and edit last.

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Posted in "to be", action verbs, adverbs, backstory, citing evidence, conclusions, dialog in writing, editing, English Writing Instruction, flow, naming characters, needless words, number of words per sentence, omitting unnecessary information, perfectionism, revising first drafts, show don't tell, spelling, word choice, writing tips

11 rules to keep you, the author, invisible to your readers

Posted on March 6, 2022 | Leave a comment

Most fiction writers want readers to get so captivated while reading a story that they forget someone wrote it.  If invisibility is the effect you want, you might want to read these eleven rules of Elmore Leonard–author of 45 novels–from 20 years ago.*

Rule 1:  Don’t open a passage with a weather report.  People read novels to learn about people, not the weather.

Rule 2:  No prologues. Prologues usually contain backstory which can be added later as the story unfolds.

Rule 3:  Use “said”—nothing else—when a character speaks.  “Said” is almost invisible, but any other word—asserted, warned—distracts the reader from the action to the author.

Rule 4:  Don’t use adverbs to describe “said.”  Adverbs distract from the story action and remind the reader that an author wrote this story.

Rule 5:  Limit exclamations marks to almost zero.

Rule 6:  Don’t use “suddenly.”  If you say, for example, “Suddenly, he fell,” the reader knows something is about to happen before the story’s character does.

Rule 7:  Rarely use regional dialect.  That requires apostrophes and weird spellings.  Once you start, it’s hard to stop.  And hard to read.

Rule 8:  Keep descriptions of characters brief.  Let their dialog conjure images in the reader’s mind.

Rule 9:  Keep descriptions of places and things brief.  Descriptions of anything slow down or even stop the forward action of a story.

Rule 10:  Skip long paragraphs without dialog.  Readers do.

Rule 11:  Don’t use proper diction if it sounds unnatural, or if it slows down the action.

*These rules are paraphrased from the July 16, 2001, edition of The New York Times, Section E, page 1.  I recommend you read Leonard’s original words.  They’re a hoot.

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Posted in adverbs, backstory, dialog in writing, said, skipping words when reading, using regional dialect, writing rules

Six ways to improve writing anything

Posted on October 13, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here are six writing practices to make your writing better:

  • Make your sentences clear during a first read, so the reader doesn’t say, “Huh?”  A reader shouldn’t need to backtrack to figure out what you’re trying to say.
  • Use varied sentence structure.  Subject—verb—direct object.  Prepositional phrase—adjective—subject—verb—adverb.  Gerund—prepositional phrase—verb—adjective.  Subject—verb—direct object—appositive.  So many combinations exist.  Why bore readers with the same old same old?
  • Keep subjects and verbs near each other.  A thought which is interrupted by prepositional phrases, clauses and other grammatical constructions leads to unclear reading.  (The previous sentence’s subject is “thought.” Its verb comes twelve words later.  This is an example of what not to do.)
  • Eliminate most adverbs, especially those ending with -ly.  Instead, choose strong verbs, so an adverb is not needed.
  • Eliminate repeated words unless you are using them for emphasis.  Some repeated words I see my students use are “start,” “then,” “so,” “like,” and “really.”  Identify your repeated words, and see if you need them.
  • Use good grammar, but don’t strive for perfect grammar.  Writing today is more conversational than in the past.  And more informal.  (Did you notice that that last “sentence” is not a sentence at all but a fragment?)  You can begin sentences with “and” and “but.”  You can use “you” instead of “he” or “she” or “one.”

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Posted in active verbs, adverbs, clarity, English Writing Instruction, fragments, grammar, lack of appeal to readers, lockstep sentence patterns, needless words, sentence structure