When you read your story, does it sound off, maybe you can’t quite put your finger on it, but you know you’ve done something wrong?
Sometimes–maybe even lots of times–there are simple fixes. I’ll point them out. They’ll come at you once a week, giving you plenty of time to go through your story and make the adjustments. Please add comments with your favorite editing fixes.
Adverbs support verbs. Adverbs help explain the action of the verb. What that means is, find a better verb. How do 
you do this?
- Use Word’s Find function to locate all ly endings. Why ly? It’s because most adverbs end in -ly –quickly, softly, you get the idea.
- Notice the verb it’s attached to.
- Use your thesaurus, synonym finder, thesaurus.com or the right click on Word to find a better, more descriptive verb.
- You can’t replace all adverbs, just many, and that will pick up the pace of your story, tighten it, make your readers happier
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Jacqui Murray is the editor of a technology curriculum for K-fifth grade and creator of two technology training books for middle school. She is the author of Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy midshipman. She is webmaster for five blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, IMS tech expert, and a weekly contributor to Write Anything and Technology in Education. Currently, she’s editing a thriller for her agent that should be out to publishers this summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, Cisco guest blog,Technology in Education featured blogger, IMS tech expert, and a bi-monthly contributor to Today’s Author. In her free time, she is the editor of a K-8 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum, and creator of technology training books for how to integrate technology in education. Currently, she’s editing a thriller that should be out to publishers next summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for these wonderful tips. I will use them. Keep ‘em coming you not only make me a better writer but you make me want to be a better writer.
By: cafegirlchronicles on March 2, 2010
at 12:49 am
Thanks, cafegirl. It’s my pleasure. We are all in this together.
By: worddreams on March 2, 2010
at 2:33 am
Wow, that’s so useful! Thanks for the tip!
By: Kayla on March 9, 2010
at 10:16 pm
It’s a hard one, though. When I started getting rid of adverbs, I had to find a whole lot more–and better verbs. I developed a list just to jog my memory. This writing’s a tough job!
By: worddreams on March 9, 2010
at 11:18 pm
I use adverbs a lot and it’s bugging me too! xDD I know it makes it sound off but I’m too lazy to fix it xD
By: brokenxkatana on March 30, 2010
at 3:57 pm
Great tip, thank you. One that will definitely help with my editing process
By: romancingforthrills on February 21, 2011
at 1:06 pm
But it is so hard to do. They seep in like mold and once they’ve taken hold–yuck. I don’t want to think about it.
By: Jacqui on February 21, 2011
at 2:29 pm
So far my work is not too bad but I did find that in one chapter I liked the word “really” quite a bit. Thanks for the tips.
By: Billie Jo Woods on August 21, 2011
at 1:23 am
That’s like the word ‘very’–never of any use. I have to watch for passive voice–’was’ and such. I write thrillers and inaction is deadly in that genre.
By: Jacqui Murray on August 21, 2011
at 7:29 am
[...] tips on her blog which I am using as a sort of check-list for my rewriting/editing process. Tip #2 Ban Weak Adverbs, reminded us to use them sparingly. She recommended using the find feature on your word programme [...]
By: Adverbs – Are they contagious? | Out of the Woods on August 21, 2011
at 1:50 am
i want to know what is adverb weak used
By: swenzel on August 29, 2011
at 7:38 am
Most adverbs are redundant. A stronger verb will replace them nicely. Takes a bit of time, but the results as far as your story goes are tremendous.
By: Jacqui Murray on August 29, 2011
at 7:45 pm
i have a strange habit of using ” and ” too much . even when i try to stop myself i find that i’ve used it too often a page . i don’t know how to be more alert to this in the future .
By: Veronica Nyongesa on October 26, 2011
at 8:30 am
Do a Word search for it. Word will even highlight them-all for you. When they glare out at you in yellow from the page, it’ll force you to take notice.
But, don’t worry about it on the first draft. Just write. Get the story out and then edit.
I’m impressed you speak Swahili and Dutch. Wow. And you write so well in English.
By: Jacqui Murray on October 26, 2011
at 9:18 am
Hi Jacqui
As you’d said, I found the ly words, no problem. But how do I then find the verbs for those words? Thesaurus gives only Synonyms, not the verbs. Am I missing the obvious? Thanks. Arun
By: arundebnath on December 3, 2012
at 3:33 pm
I usually close my eyes, put my head back, and ponder. If the stars are aligned, the right word comes to me. Other times, it’ll pop in my head in the middle of a sound sleep. My muse arrives when it suits her.
By: Jacqui Murray on December 4, 2012
at 5:50 pm