One question, one Kindle author.
One outcome.
Q: Which words do you hate writing?
David Lender: I hate writing the words: suddenly, slowly, indifferently, dejectedly, morosely and their ilk: adverbs. I use them sometimes in first drafts when I’m trying to keep the flow going, but if I do slump into using adverbs, it means I’m not being crisp with my verbs.
Either that or I’m not writing effective dialog; because if I need to elaborate on how a character said something instead of just saying, “she said,” it means the dialog isn’t getting the emotional tenor of the scene across. I’m also a big believer in using a limited number of adjectives per noun. “The damp, hot, smoggy air . . . ” just seems so bloated compared to picking the one adjective that most effectively gets the point across, perhaps, “the steamy air.”
Writers who use frequent adverbs and too many adjectives usually wear me out by the end of the first few chapters.
