Discussions At The Garden Bench

"The use of adjectives and adverbs in writing" and see what some experts say about their use:

1. The adjectives and manner adverbs that are worth keeping are often the ones that add new information. The ones that should go are usually the ones that contain value judgments. They tell readers how to feel about something rather than giving them the facts and letting them decide for themselves. Compare:a totally awesome and cool car and a sleek, high-performance sportscar..."
on: http://www.grammarunderground.com/a-test-to-decide-whether-adverbs-and-adjective...

2. In case anyone had the same question I did:

"Nowadays, adjectives and adverbs are considered to be lazy writing. They tend to tell the action, emotion, scenery, etc. instead of allowing the reader to experience it for themselves.

But didn’t books use adverbs and adjectives in the old days?

Yes. But we’re not still making black and white movies anymore, are we? We’ve improved our technology and have discovered new—better—ways of capturing film."

on http://www.almostanauthor.com/whats-wrong-adjectives-adverbs/

3.It applies outside of creative writing. "If you tend to use a lot of adverbs and adjectives — words like “though,” “largely,” “seems,” “that,” and “really” — make it a habit to remove them before you send an email."
https://www.theladders.com/career-advice/steve-jobs-email-secrets

Authors on Adjectives and Adverbs

1. "I should be concerned because I’m in the business of shoving nouns and verbs together while mixing in adjectives, adverbs and such. And I want to do it correctly." (okay, not the world's most famous author, but newspaper editor, speaking on why semantics matter) on: http://www.myeasternshoremd.com/kent_county_news/spotlight/herring-longtime-whig...

2. I used to think that adjectives and adverbs made a sentence stronger. One of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever gotten: simple is usually stronger.
on https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/5-misconceptions-about-the-creative-writing...

3. “Never use an adverb to modify the verb ‘said’…he admonished gravely.” – Elmore Leonard on https://andyrossagency.wordpress.com/2012/07/09/writers-on-writing-my-favorite-q...

Bonus item: Authors that became adjectives

http://bigthink.com/scotty-hendricks/8-literary-superlatives-and-what-they-reall...

The article that contained the Leonard post was most beneficial to me, though perhaps not surprising. It's full of sharp quotes that link all the ideas together.

Plus, it taught me about the Tom Swifties (“Let’s get to the rocket ship, Tom said swiftly.”) That is now etched in my brain.

How will it help my writing? Looking at the items I've already written, it seems there are some revisions needed. And by some, I mean rewrites. Hopefully, I can take what I'm learning and write intentionally over the coming months. My goal is mindful first drafts, and stronger second drafts by the end of the year.

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