I was over at my friend’s webpage (
Her list was:
quite,
nearly,
almost,
just about,
mostly,
very close to,
usually,
even,
try to
I’ve added the following:
still (had 222 of these)
very (had 96 of these)
extremely (26)
completely (14)
quite (14)
particular (4)
rather (depends on its usage)
In Stephen King’s book On Writing, he suggests plucking as many dandelions (the term he uses for adverbs) as possible. One dandelion on a lawn may be nice, but when your whole lawn is dandelions…it becomes a nightmare.
Of Eileen’s list…1/3 are adverbs.
Examples: he stared intently (he stared).
My isolation finally ended (my isolation ended)
doubted his followers really knew (doubted his followers knew )
BTW, Eileen, even though I criticized the quantity of ‘just’ in Seeing the Light, I went through and found 150 ‘Justs’ in Curse of the Black Swan. Got rid of 125 of them.
Adverbs. Who woulda thunk it? I’m good with adjectives (sort of) but adverbs slide into my writing like — well, like dandelions in my lawn. (Probably explains the dandelion explosion I had in my yard this year. A portent of things to come!)
And 150 verys? Barely counts, Big Guy! Get that number up over 400! Come on! I know you want to! (My inability to see adverbs explains why I didn’t mention them in my critique of “Curse.” Sigh. I need those blinders to come off. or you poor people will be cursed with them every time you open one of my documents. )