Setting Goals to Get Your Book Finished

Rebecca Mikkelson, Editor-in-Chief Authors 4 Authors Publishing

I know how it can be hard to get your book done. You’ve got work, you have a family and/or pets that need your attention, you have to take care of the daily chores, and then, by the time that’s all done, you’re too pooped out to want to write. So how are you going to get your book finished by the time you want to? Setting goals and sticking to them, that’s how.

Going Too Big

One of the biggest downfalls of writers that I see is they put too much pressure on themselves to get their writing (or editing) done in a super short amount of time, but it turns out that it isn’t a realistic goal for them. 

There are some people who easily do NaNoWriMo every year and manage to write a full-fledged novel every single year, but if you struggle with those types of goals, recognize that you aren’t one of them. And that’s okay—not everyone is. I’m certainly not, and I’ve come to terms with that.

Don’t Beat Yourself Up

Another part of goal setting is when you don’t make your goals, don’t beat yourself up. It’s not going to make continuing on with your goals any easier; it will actually make it harder. 

We are how we talk about ourselves—if you fail to make a goal and you say something along the lines of, “this is never going to get done, I can’t write as much as X can,” or “this is never going to get done, I can’t write more than a page,” then you’re not going to make any progress.

Beating yourself is going to put a block in your confidence and ability to put words on the page. Don’t ever let anyone—including yourself!—discourage you from achieving your writing goals. 

Setting Achievable Goals

When you want to set goals for your writing, you need to make sure that they’re achievable. This means being honest with yourself and examining just how much time you actually have in your daily and weekly routines to make sure you can carve out time for writing. 

Put a number to it

There are a couple of different types of goals that you can make for your writing, one of them being a numerical number. So this could be writing three days a week, once a week, or even a specific number of words per day. The word count goal for each of your writing sessions can easily start to get out of hand, so make sure that you’re setting up goals that you can achieve. Someone you see on Twitter might say that they write 4K words a day—that works for them. Give it a try for yourself and see if you can, and if you can’t, set a smaller goal. Maybe it’s 1K a day, or even 500 words a day.

Put a time to it

Putting a time on your writing could mean a couple of different things. You could say you’re writing at 5:00 AM every day, no matter what, or if you’re a night owl, you could tell your family, “This is my writing time, don’t disturb me from 9:00–10:00 PM.”

What I like to do when I’m writing is to do it in bursts, or sprints as most people call it. If I put a very constrained amount of time, I don’t have time to pussyfoot around and worry about whether or not I’m putting down crappy words (which is one of my blocks for writing).

Make It a Habit

One of the most important things you can do in any goal-making process is to hold yourself accountable. Without any accountability, what’s the point of even making goals?

It takes about three months to make something a habit, which might surprise you. So the longer than you take keep putting it off in, the longer it’s going to take you to reach the end of your book. 

Reward Yourself

Lastly, when you’re holding yourself accountable, remember to reward yourself for keeping to your goals. This could be anything from watching your favorite show once you’ve finished your writing, or putting a dollop of whipped cream in your coffee. Find something that you’d be sad if you missed it to keep you motivated to stick to your writing goals. 

We hope this has been helpful to get started on your writing goals and sticking to them. Join us next week for our latest installment in our Misused Advice series where we talk about not using be verbs.

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How To Overcome Writer's Block

Rebecca Mikkelson, Editor-in-Chief Authors 4 Authors Publishing

Writer’s block is the bane of every writer’s existence, and it happens far more often than we would like. So how do you get writer’s block, and how do you get over it?

Identify why you’ve got writer’s block

What do you mean, identify why I’ve got writer’s block? The words just won’t come, silly! 

Well, that’s true, but there’s usually a reason why you’ve got writer’s block. So what is it? I’ll cover three of the biggest reasons you and your fellow writers get writer’s block.

The idea that your work has to be perfect

I get it, writing is scary. I often suffer from this particular aspect of writer’s block; I want so much for the words to be perfect that instead of just writing, I freeze and stop writing altogether, and I can’t seem to move on.

Or when you’re starting a story, you’ve got the main idea down pat, but you don’t quite know how to get it out, and you’re scared it’s going to come out stupid, so you don’t put the words down. 

Or that even if you do write something and put it out there, that no one will like it, because your writing isn’t good enough, so you delay and delay writing this book.

Putting it off until you’re too tired

I fall victim to this one a lot. You’ve got a full day of adulting, and you’ve got to wait until your kids go to bed so you’ve got quiet time—provided you’ve got kids, and if you don’t and suddenly have children in your house, call the police. 

Now you’re so tired from your long day of whatever it is you’re doing, working, child-rearing, etc. that your brain is worn out, and all you want to do is be a blob and be entertained instead of having to create words…because words are hard.

You’ve got too much going on

This isn’t to say that it’s a bad thing that you’ve got a lot going on, but that isn’t always the best way to get writing done. This could be anything from someone pestering talking to you via text, social media, or in the room; someone watching a loud movie in the same room you’re trying to write in; finishing the next level in candy crush because you couldn’t beat it last night when you were supposed to be sleeping, and the list goes on and on and on.

Distractions are everywhere, man.

How to overcome your writer’s block

Now that we’ve talked about what causes your writer’s block, we can talk about the solutions for getting over those blocks. Unlike the last section, I’m going to five solutions that have worked for me in overcoming my writer’s block.

Take a walk

Those who know me know exactly how desperate I have to be to take a walk to overcome my writer’s block. Much like being creative, exercise can reduce stress and make you happy. If you don’t believe me, believe Elle Woods:

Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people just don't kill their husbands. They just don't.

You might not kill your husband after taking a walk, but you might just kill that character you need to get out of the way, and that’s a good thing. 

Go somewhere else

We’ve all seen the overplayed trope in movies of writers in a Starbucks with their scarves and topknots typing away madly while they’ve got their earbuds in and an undrunk (or in the case of movies, never filled) cups of coffee. There’s a reason this is a trope…writers do it all the time. 

Going somewhere else and putting yourself in a new surrounding can really open up whatever block you’re experiencing, and the words will just flow. I’ve written many a chapter in a coffee shop when my husband and I are visiting family and he wants to do activities that I don’t really want to. And by golly, it was the most productive I’ve ever been while writing because I didn’t have any other option but to write. 

What else was I going to do? Talk to a stranger?

That’s how you get murdered.

Work on a different project

Sometimes the best thing that you can do is put your current WIP aside and pick up a new one. We promise that your old WIP isn’t going to be the sad little orphan whose parent never comes back for them, but it will help you start writing again. Once words start to flow with a different project, it’ll be easier to go back to your first one. 

Alternatively, you can do another project that isn’t writing but just as creative to reduce your stress and make it easier to write, like coloring, sewing, or doing a DIY project. Anything that gets those creative juices flowing.

Write first thing in the morning

Gross, the sun isn’t even up yet!

I’ve seen all over Twitter the #5AMWritersClub hashtag and I thought these people were crazy to get up that early to do some writing, but writing first thing in the morning and making a habit of doing it at the same time every day really will break the dam down. The last thing writers need to be doing is waiting for inspiration to strike because writing takes work. It’s a little bit like planning on being rich by waiting for gold to fall out of the sky and hit you. 

Plan, plan, plan

The last tip that I want to give you is the simplest one: plan your novel.

If you know where you’re going in the story, and each chapter, it’s much easier to write toward that goal. For example, when I started writing my series, I knew exactly where the series was going to end, and where each book would end for the most impact. With that in mind, I could plan each chapter until I hit those goals. 

Writer’s block still happens, of course, but knowing where I’m going makes it a lot easier to get over the hump quicker. 

I hope this post has been helpful for you, and that you can get back to writing ASAP. Join us next week when we talk about the importance of an author website.

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Misused Advice: No Prologues

Brandi Spencer (formerly B. C. Marine), Secretary-Treasurer Authors 4 Authors Publishing

Every piece of advice that we talk about in this series has good intentions at its origin but has evolved into something either misused or inviolable. Because I believe in being honest about my biases, I must say that I do have some stakes in the prologue debate, having written a couple myself. However, before you dismiss this whole post, know that I am not going to argue that every story needs a prologue or that all prologues are valid. “All or nothing” tends to make poor writing advice for any side, so let’s take a deeper dive into what to do with this much-maligned chapter type.

Why All the Hate?

Oh, how some people hate prologues. Let them count all the ways. And they do, all the time. Check any writers’ forum or social media community on any given day, and you’re likely to find someone spouting their utter loathing for them. (If this is news to you at all, welcome, newbie! Enjoy your blissful ignorance of ceaseless writer debates while it lasts.) Honestly, as we’ve seen in submissions we receive at Authors 4 Authors Publishing, many of the complaints about prologues are generally valid. They can often be dry and boring or unnecessary.

Twice the Risk, Half the Reward

This is one of the biggest strikes against prologues, and there’s no getting around it: they force you to open your story twice. Authors spend a long time perfecting those opening lines because of the power of first impressions. You don’t have much time to hook your audience into reading the rest of your story. Used correctly, prologues are mini-stories that set the reader up for the main story, which means you’ll need openers for both. If you’re going to write a prologue, you’d better be prepared to work twice as hard on the beginning of your story.

Ain't Nobody Got Time For That

Yes, there are agents out there who claim they will pass on anything with a prologue. Some readers will proudly acknowledge that they always skip prologues and start with chapter one. As someone who immediately backtracks to the title page when I open an ebook to make sure I haven’t missed anything, I find the notion completely bizarre, but these people do exist.

The Ol’ Bait ’n’ Switch

Given the hatred many people have for prologues, one commonly-touted solution is to call yours chapter one. Many argue that nobody will notice the difference if you just change the name and that it will con those who are prejudiced against prologues to read yours. But if you are able to rename your chapter with nobody being the wiser, did you truly have a prologue to start with? Probably not. In which case, good for you, your life just got easier.

For someone with an actual prologue, changing the name won’t fool anyone, nor will it miraculously make the chapter more enjoyable. The real problem isn’t with the word “prologue”; it’s with how poorly written many are.

To Prologue Or Not to Prologue

A prologue shouldn’t exist for the sake of existing; it needs to have a purpose. Why does this particular scene or chapter need to be shown before the rest of the story? What separates it from everything else?

History of the World: Part I: Cliffnotes Edition: Narrated by Ben Stein

This is the hardest raison d’être to justify for a prologue. When you can, it’s better to weave exposition naturally throughout the story than to dump a chunk of information in front of the story. Doing that is what gives most prologues a bad name. How truly essential is the backstory from a thousand years ago to understanding the first chapter or two of your story? Is it at all possible that readers can learn some of it later? If exposition must be done in the prologue, it’s best if combined with one of the other purposes.

And Who Might You Be?

If this one scene is in a different POV from the rest of the book, that’s a good reason to set it apart. This is seen often in mystery or horror with a scene of a victim’s last moments, but it’s used in other genres too. For example, Fyr by Lisa Borne Graves opens with a prologue from the POV of Ruby, who is never seen again for the rest of the book. It’s essential because it brings the main characters where they need to be, and it wouldn’t make sense for any other character to explain it later because she acts alone.

The one problem with this type of prologue is that readers can identify too readily with the POV character, only to be disappointed when they realize the main character is someone else. In Fyr, this is avoided because Graves makes it clear from the outset that Ruby is doomed, and more of the focus is on her observations of one of the main characters than on herself. In a way, she hands off the story as much as she does the object she’s holding.

I’m Sorry, Are You From the Past?

No, exposition lovers, this isn’t the excuse to write about the history of your world. This is a scene from POV of your usual characters but with a larger-than-usual time jump before the main story. This was the type of prologue I used for A Seer’s Daughter. Though my characters are adults, it opens with a scene of them as children, which sets it apart. Yes, it gives backstory but by showing what happened at a specific event, not by giving a dry rundown of their personal history. In fact, every effort to write the story without the prologue resulted in the story coming to a screeching halt to either give a flashback right away or drop all the important information in a chunk of information that didn’t suit the character’s voice at all. Telling that particular piece of the story in order came out much more naturally.

Like with a different POV, a problem with this type of prologue is that readers may get too comfortable with where the story starts or dislike how the characters may change during the time skip. In my case, I didn’t want readers to get too used to them as children and have trouble investing in their love life as adults. 

It’s Been 84 Years…

Okay, fine. There is a place for history. Maybe you have a scene from a hundred years before the start of the main story in the POV character of someone’s great-grandparent. You’re going to end up with the combined issues of being in the past and in another POV, so you’d better make it worthwhile. Remember that the prologue is still a chapter in the novel, so it should read like a story, not like a history text. And if you’re setting this particular scene, why? It’s definitely separate enough to be a prologue, but what parts of the main story cannot be told without it? If it’s not essential, it might make an interesting expositional note somewhere, rather than being a full prologue. If it is essential, make sure your story is epic enough to justify it.

Time to Go Back to the Future

Some prologues are actually an event from later in the book or series, with the main story being about how they got to that point. It’s often used to create excitement and tension in the opening of a story that otherwise has a sleepy beginning. Some will argue that this is a cheat or lazy because it’s copying a later scene instead of making the story start somewhere more interesting. However, paranormal is a huge genre for this one for good reason. The point of these stories is often that something supernatural is lurking behind an idyllic and boring façade, which means that the story won’t make much sense if exciting things are happening from the start. In these books, the prologue is a promise to the reader that there really are paranormal happenings coming, even if the beginning feels like a more realistic genre.

It’s All True, I Swear

You may not even realize this last type is a prologue, but it is. Some books will have a fake letter, foreword, preface, or introduction. Maybe it warns the reader to put the book down, relying on reverse psychology to reel them in. Maybe it recounts how the book came into the writer’s possession or claims that the story is real. What makes these prologues rather than frame narratives is that they stay at the beginning instead of reappearing in the middle of the book. Occasionally, you’ll see a frame narrative with a prologue and epilogue only, though.

Conclusion

Prologues do have a purpose and can be done well, but they need to have a good reason to be there. If your story truly needs one, make it worth the readers’ while.

Have you ever heard writing advice that seemed odd? Let us know on Twitter or Facebook! Keep an eye out for next month’s Misused Writing Advice: Don’t Use “Be” Verbs.

And join us next week for an interview with author Lisa Bourgon, to talk about her upcoming novel, Ma’am Is a Four-Letter Word.

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New Authors: I'm Feeling Conflicted

Writing conflict in your story

Rebecca Mikkelson, Editor-in-Chief Authors 4 Authors Publishing

And me, Brandi Spencer (formerly B. C. Marine), Secretary-Treasurer Authors 4 Authors Publishing!

A necessary factor to writing conflict in your work is making sure that you have your pacing down first because you need to hit certain points at certain times to keep your story compelling. This is where being a plotter has more benefits than being a pantser, because you can plan these points out in advance and work toward them. 

When should you introduce your conflict?

As mentioned in our blog post about plot, you need to introduce your conflict within the first act. Usually, this is when your main character or protagonist locks themselves into the story by making a goal or decision that pulls the rest of the characters toward the end goal. For a compelling conflict and story, I would highly recommend introducing your conflict at the very very latest by the end of chapter three. Ideally, it will be by the end of the first chapter.

Your main conflict, that is. To really hook readers, you should have a smaller conflict from the first— 

Excuse me, this is my blog post. What are you doing poking around in here, B. C.?

But conflict is so important! I can’t let you miss anything.

Ugh, fine. Just don’t interrupt me too much, okay?

I’ll try, but I can’t make any promises.

Who brings about your conflict?

B. C., apparently. 

But more seriously, in a character-driven plot, your conflict has to be driven by someone, so who is it going to be? It can be just about anyone in the cast who sets a conflict in motion. (If you want to learn about characters, you can take a look at this blog post from our new authors series, or from our character types series.) Depending on the character, it will change the tone of your conflict. For example, if your MC is a high school-aged girl who has to overcome her own insecurities, it can be an uplifting story of self-love and believing in your own abilities. If a bully in the school is deliberately and maliciously spreading harmful rumors about your MC, they now have a much larger problem to face than their own insecurities, and it will be more difficult to overcome.

Even family, friends, or lovers can create conflict when they have different relationship goals.

Or our meddling coworkers. I thought you weren’t interrupting? There isn’t much to add to this section, man. I did my homework!

Surprise! Conflict doesn’t have to be caused by a person

In event-driven plots, your conflict may perhaps be caused by someone’s actions, but it’s on a much larger scale. This would be something like a war that isn’t caused by one particular person as the examples above and happens well outside of the protagonist’s purview...usually. This is a particularly common conflict in historical fictions and fantasy novels. Another common conflict that comes in for fantasy novels, also sci-fi and dystopian, is a cataclysmic event that the characters have to survive. 

I approve. I have nothing to add here.

Really? Then did you have to say anything? Am I allowed to move on now, O Knower of Conflict?

Yes, yes, you may.

Making your conflict compelling

This might surprise you, but you need to have conflict in every single chapter of your book. Remember, your conflict doesn’t have to be a supersized event all the time. It could be personality clashes between mother and daughter (or even mother-in-law and daughter-in-law!), a disagreement between lovers, friends, family, or journey companions, or between boss and worker. There are so many ways to bring conflict into your story—it doesn’t even have to be with a person. Maybe your character needs to reach their friend or child in a storm before they get washed away, but trees are coming down left and right. The weather, an outside force, is now driving the conflict in the chapter. 

Give an example of micro conflicts at the chapter level. This is the area that a lot of authors struggle with and why things like travel scenes get a bad reputation. Superfluous sex scenes can do it too. For example, some of—

Hey! Who’s writing this blog post?

As I was saying, some of my romances could be erotica if I showed all the sex main couples are having, and while there are still a fair number of scenes in some stories, how much I choose to put on the page for each scene is about conflict. And those kinds of scenes don’t involve fighting or physical peril. In fact, even as they're the only two characters actually in the scenes, they aren't in conflict with each other but still struggle internally.

Anyway, it might feel overwhelming to hear that your conflict needs to be in every chapter, but conflict is what makes the story interesting, and a lack of it can easily make your reader put your book down. 

Ooh! Dialogue is a great tool for micro conflict too. 

B. C.! 

What? Straightforward conversations are boring, but if it veers away from where the protagonist wants it to go, even a friendly conversation will have conflict. Because, at its core, conflict is all about something or someone becoming an obstacle to the protagonist’s goals, no matter how small.

B. C., this is my blog post! Are you even listening to me? If you wanted to write about conflict, you should have taken it.

Believable conflict

There is a certain amount of suspended belief in the vast majority of genres, but how believable is your conflict? You have to match your conflict to the abilities of your characters. I’m not going to believe that a group of ten-year-olds are going to save the world with their technical know-how. They’re ten. But if you tell me a group of late teens to early twenties have to save the world with their technical know-how, I’d find it a lot easier to accept. 

Another aspect of believability is how much your characters struggle within your selected conflict. If, without any struggle at all, your character manages to succeed at every task, and your character still manages to be beloved by all, you run the risk of having created either a Mary Sue or a Marty Stu. Once those characters are created, it’s very easy for your readers to say, “Well, of course they did!” to something they’ve done right or well and not want to continue reading.

And staying in character is important too. I think we’ve all rolled our eyes at the perfect couple who suddenly hates each other in the sequel just for conflict’s sake.

For heaven’s sake, B. C.! Can I not get through a single section by myself?

How conflict changes your characters

This is a very important aspect within your story: character growth or regression. How does your conflict affect your characters? Does it make them dig their heels in more and not want to deal with the problems until they have to? Or do they step up, help the people around them, and become better versions of themselves? This could mean they become braver, they become more compassionate, they become better rulers, etc. etc. 

Ideally, your conflict will bring about character growth for your main character, and they’ll become a better person by the end of the story or more prepared to face the next big conflict in the next book.

Or perhaps it knocks them down a few rungs. Not every story has a positive character arc. 

I give up. There’s no point in fighting if you’re not even going to listen to me.

Sometimes the conflict beats them into regression. Sometimes the conflict wins.

Have you accurately portrayed how someone goes through a certain conflict?

There’s one last thing I want to talk about that doesn’t happen in every book. This is traumatic conflict, such as kidnapping, rape, or miscarriage. I will say that everyone reacts differently to these types of events, but it would be unusual for someone to have no reaction at all. This is partially where “write what you know” fails authors since there are plenty of resources out there that can guide authors into believable and accurate reactions to these types of situations. 

Wait—B. C. has nothing to say? Did she finally start listening to me?

B. C.?

…B. C.?

I guess so. Thanks for sticking it out on our new authors series; we hope that it’s been helpful for both those just starting on their writing journey and those that are a little further along. 

See, wasn’t this so much more fun with a little conflict?

What the f—

Join us next week when we start a two week series on editing! (And I promise not to interrupt Rebecca on that one…maybe.) 

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New Authors: Theme It To Me, Baby

Themes within your book

Rebecca Mikkelson, Editor-in-Chief Authors 4 Authors Publishing

Themes are integral to writing a book. These are central topics that your characters have to overcome, work through, or work toward before the end of the book.

What is a theme?

Here is the definition from Merriam-Webster:

theme (noun) \ ˈthēm  \

1a: a subject or topic of discourse or of artistic representation 

b: a specific and distinctive quality, characteristic, or concern

Themes are what enrich your story. Your theme might be women overcoming adversity in their surroundings (courage and heroism), finding love (love, obviously), overcoming hardships in relation to sex, race, or creed (prejudice), being an outsider in the world you live in (individual vs society), and the list goes on and on ad infinitum. These help color your characters and move the plot forward. You might have only one theme, or you might have several. Though, likely, without realizing it, you’ll have a central theme and smaller ones that feed into that. 

The Difference Between Theme and Moral

A theme is the central idea on which the work is based, and a moral lesson is that message or the lesson that the author wants the reader to derive from their work. These two go hand and hand, and while you can have a theme without a moral, you can’t have a moral without a theme. And not every story is going to intentionally have a moral, but it’s in the nature of storytellers to subtly infuse morals into their words. 

Here are a couple of examples of morals:

• Always tell the truth
• Keep your promises
• Don’t cheat
• Treat others as you want to be treated
• Be forgiving
• Take responsibility for your actions

A similarity between themes and morals is that they can go without the author specifically saying them, which is a reason I say that authors don’t always know that they’ve also included a moral. And the reader can always derive a moral without the author specifically putting one in. 

Do I need a theme?

Short answer: yes, absolutely. 

Why do you need a theme? It’s integral to the development of your characters, how the world affects them, and how your plot moves forward. You might be thinking at this point that a theme sounds remarkably similar to a conflict, and that’s because they tie into each other. One of the conflicts in your book could be having an interracial couple and having the FMC (female main character) and MMC (male main character) stay together through the conflict arising from their socioeconomic backgrounds, and your theme would be love conquers all.

How themes change your characters

Let’s keep with the theme that love conquers all. How will this change your character, you might ask? In the situation laid out above, your characters will have to learn more about each other’s backgrounds and face backlash for their relationship. These struggles will make your characters more compassionate, especially the character who doesn’t have to face as many socioeconomic struggles. Throughout the book, you should easily be able to see where the characters grow more compassionate toward each other and have more of a passion for helping those around them who might be facing some of the struggles they are.

Clichéd themes

A cliché isn’t always a bad thing. A cliché becomes a cliché from becoming overused, but depending on how you do it, it could easily turn out boring and overdone. It might be a little harsh to say that, but saying it now will be less of a kick than your reviewers saying you’re unoriginal. 

There are a couple of themes that are very cliché but, depending on the way the story is told, can be just as exciting as the first time it was told. In my experience, these very familiar but still enjoyable themes are usually found in the romance and adventure/fantasy genres. 

Join us next week for the final installment of our new authors series, where we’ll talk about conflict.

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Misused Advice: Eliminate Adverbs

B. C. Marine, Secretary-Treasurer Authors 4 Authors Publishing

Every piece of advice that we talk about in this series has good intentions at its origin but has evolved into something either misused or inviolable. Today’s advice to eliminate adverbs is no different. It’s probably the prime example of why it’s important to learn the reasons behind “The Rules” of writing before implementing them.

The Problems

Ironically, bending over backward to delete every adverb can sometimes create one of the exact problems it was meant to solve! How, you ask? Let’s start with the reason behind the advice. Adverbs are blamed for destroying two things: brevity and clarity.

Brevity

In today’s insta-everything world, brevity is more important than ever. Novels aren’t paid for by the word, and though short stories sometimes are, the storytelling space is so small that each word must hold its weight. In fact, extra words cost money, either in page counts for printing or in file delivery costs for ebook distribution. Even if you or your publisher don’t care about pricing, readers may put your story down if you take longer than needed to tell it.

Adverbs are an easy scapegoat for this since, by their nature, they tack onto verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. Unlike subjects, objects, or verbs, adverbs aren’t essential sentence components, so when word counts need reduction, they’re the first in line for deletion.

Clarity

Even those not sold on the merits of brevity can appreciate the advantages of clarity. This is usually where you hear writers talk about using a strong verb instead of propping up a weak verb with an adverb. For example, if you’re describing an action scene, which of these is the most visceral?

1. He fled.
2. He fled quickly.
3. He bolted.

Option three paints the clearest picture in your mind, doesn’t it? It gives us more than the weak verb, with or without the adverb to bolster it.

The Other Side

At this point, many sources will wipe their hands together and declare their advice on adverbs finished. Haven’t we proven that they’re useless at best?

Not at all!

If that were truly the case, why would adverbs exist? As a part of language, they must serve a purpose, as evidenced by how things can go wrong when authors try too hard to avoid them.

The Scenic Route

We’ve all done it. You’re heading somewhere and take what you think will be a great shortcut, only to discover that you’ve chosen the scenic route. Adverb avoidance can do the same thing. Let’s use another example:

1. “Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed,” she whispered loudly.
2. “Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed,” she said in a stage whisper.
3. “Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed,” she said in a loud whisper.
4. “Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed,” she whispered, knowing that everyone could hear her.

Examples two through three get rid of the adverb “loudly” but end up longer than the original. If brevity is the point, eliminating the adverb this way misses it completely. It trades the one offending word ending in “-ly” for a whole adverbial phrase. Unless you’re trying to satisfy an English teacher who has banned or limited your use of “-ly” adverbs, there’s no good reason to avoid example one.

Language Limitations

You might be thinking, Okay, smartypants, just take out the adverb entirely! That can be easier said than done. Let’s use the same example again:

1. “Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed,” she whispered.
2. “Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed,” she whispered loudly.

These two sentences do not mean the same thing. Example one is a normal whisper, likely meant only for the person she’s directly next to; if she’s overhead, it’s unintentionally so. Example two is a stage whisper, used for joking or sarcasm and meant to be heard by the person she’s talking about. That one little adverb conveys all that information.

I could try to use a stronger verb if it weren’t for one teeny tiny little problem… It doesn’t exist in English. Sure, we have the concept of “stage whisper,” but that’s a noun, not a verb, and if you recall, the term was used in scenic route example number two. There are only so many verbs in the English language, and the way to supplement what’s missing is through adverbs.

Are Adverbs Good or Bad?

Neither and both. The difference between a good adverb and a bad one is like the difference between a garden plant and a weed. In your lawn, buttercups are a weed, but in a dedicated patch, they’re a lovely flower. Treat your adverbs the same way; aim for brevity and clarity, and let that dictate their usage.

Have you ever heard writing advice that seemed odd? Let us know on Twitter or Facebook! Keep an eye out for next month’s Misused Writing Advice: Never Use a Prologue.

And join us next week for an interview with author Judy Lynn, to talk about her upcoming novel, Chieftess of Acora.

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