"A Letter To Mikhail"

"A letter to Mikhail"

September 4th, 1870 I have lost count of how many letters I have written addressed to the same man, but as much as I write nothing seems to ever be enough to ease my anguish. My most adored, beloved Mikhail, why not embrace me in your arms and make me yours, and only yours? The love I feel for you dare not to be spoken of, for it is believed as abhorrent and uncivilised for me to do so. None ought to know about the nights I wished you would make love to me, about the nights I longed to hear your lovely voice that enunciates words with such delightful accent. My dearest, if only I could spend the rest of my days in your company, then I shall be the happiest man in all of England. You know of my loyalty to you, and I know of your loyalty to me, I do suspect you hold some sort of interest in me, and I hope I am right to suspect such things. My longing worsens day after day, the turmoil only grows stronger the more I remember your face, and your gentle laughter, and the ways in which you make me feel so treasured. You're a wonderful gentleman, Mikhail, and I daresay that you're an angel in disguise that descended upon this wretched world to bestow upon me the utmost demonstration of love and grace. I truly hope you do return my unspoken love one day. All yours, L.A.

How To Make Your Writing Less Stiff 6

Part 5

Part 1

Adverbs

Gasp! Oh no. Dare come yet more writing advice burning adverbs at the stake? Vindictively, gleefully, manically dancing in the ashes?

No.

This is not about whether or not you should use them, but their frequency and obvious places to replace them. Most bad adverbs are the common ones that could be replaced by verbs we all know.

“She ran quickly” // “She sprinted”

“He said angrily” // “He snapped” “He chided” “He chastised”

vs.

“He ate voraciously”

“She swayed solemnly”

“She laughed sadly”

Bonus if you can add in some alliteration like ‘swayed solemnly’

If you can come up with an obvious verb to replace your verb + adverb combo, do so. If it would take more words or the closest applicable verb doesn’t hit the same vibe, then leave it. Adverbs should enhance the verb, not be redundant. Verbs shouldn’t be pretentious just to avoid them.

“She smiled happily” — most smiles are happy. Happily is redundant.

“He ran quickly” —a run is, by nature, quick

vs.

“She smiled sourly”

“He ran erratically”

Also!

The adverb need not always be after the verb.

“C accepted gladly” // “C gladly accepted”

But also

“Glad, C accepted”

“A shook their head resolutely” // “Resolute, A shook their head”

“The child skipped excitedly away.” // “Excited, the child skipped away.” // “The child skipped away, excited.”

English is flexible like that.

Which is what I mean with managing your adverb frequency. As most end in the -ly, too many in succession, on top of the repeat syntax of Subject - Verb - Adverb looks boring and dull (and so does beginning every sentence with the subject). It helps with your cadence and flow if you don’t have entire paragraphs at a time all starting with “He [verb]” or “She [verb]” or “They [verb].” We don't speak like this in natural conversation.

But at the end of the day, there are some juicy adverbs that have no equal without busting out the thesaurus for some obscure lexical nugget that no one would understand anyway.

“A Woman’s Grace”

Little red riding hood

Winnie is a sweet girl, but her desire to hunt means the village has muzzled her with a wood-carved mask.