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How many is it acceptable to use in a novel? I don't agree with the premise that you should get rid of them all. I think that is unrealistic, particularly in dialogue, but how many is too many in a novel of 100,000 words?
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I guess the real answer is how many are you happy with? I can't stand them myself but find I use them now and again when they slip under the radar.
Personally I find some worse than others and it also depends where they are. I don't like them in speech tags, for example (she said, pointedly) and the more 'constructed' they sound, the more they snag my ear (she said, irritatedly.)
I don't think you need to get rid of them all - especially (!) ones like really, that occur a lot in speech.
("Really?" she asked, questioningly.)
And their occasional use can be quite poetic IMO.
So to answer (or not) your question, I don't think there is a number. You have to look at each one, see if it is needed, see if it adds or detracts and only keep it if you're certain it's valuable.
Great advice about EVERY word in your piece.
Think of adverbs as seasoning - you can't improve weak writing by liberally sprinkling them on top. Try and use strong verbs instead, like instead of saying "She laughed heartily" you could say "She guffawed", that sort of thing.
Or has that 'e' between the 'l' and the 'y' saved you?
;)
However, the majority are words such as probably, unlikely, unfriendly, previously, recently, early and lonely. These aren't being used as adverbs in the usual sense - not IMO anyway - so I don't think it's as clear cut as limiting all 'ly' words. I hope so, anyway, as I've already sent it in!
Have you ever read Hemingway?
You dont have to like him - but read him, and about his ideas on prose. His prose is simple and matter of fact and he never uses an adverb or adjective unless absolutely necessary.
His characters, his scenes, stay in the mind. He makes you wonder what the people he has created have been doing between the time you closed the book and opened it again. He achieves this magic, and it is magic, with simple prose and and very [necessary?] few adverbs or adjectives.
We dont have to go to his extremes or like him, but I think he should be read to see how he does it.
Some of us sometimes, some people all of the time, use far too many fancy images and spectacular adjectives. It doesn't impress anyone. Except, perhaps, the writer.
REALLY good advice.
Unfussy writing but the images stay forever - maybe cos the reader suppllies the pictures and they are more easily remembered.