This post from Nicholas Rossis discusses why adverbs are supposedly bad.

My personal bugbear is not adverbs, though, but prepositions. I think they are overused more than are adverbs.

(To read my post about them, click HERE.)

Now to Nicholas’s post.

We all know how adverbs are supposedly an author’s archnemesis. They are to be avoided like, well, passive voice. We’re to go through our manuscripts, find each and every one of them, and kill them while crying out, “die, rebel scum!”

Hemingway has a lot to do with this, but so does Stephen King, with his famous quote: “I believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs.”

Has Anyone Told Readers Yet?

There’s only one problem with all this: readers don’t seem to mind adverbs at all. While we’re busy laughing at any author still using adverbs, enjoying the welcome feeling of smug superiority, readers are busy buying their books. Don’t believe me? Derek Haines shared his surprising findings on Just Publishing Advice. He took the time to check out the bestselling titles on Amazon and had a quick preview read of some of the top 100 books.

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