Quote:
Originally Posted by Nabeel
That Stephen King statement: 'The road to hell is paved with adverbs':
Isn't he thinking of people who qualify 'said' with an adverb?
He said mysteriously
She said darkly
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In King's "On Writing" he says "The adverb is not your friend", and goes on to speak of much more than speech attributions. (And a later paragraph gives the "road to hell" quote.) One example is "He closed the door firmly." He admits this works but asks if "firmly" really has to be there.
And that is really the point: does it have it be there? When it comes to adverbs (and even suspected adverbs) that is all you have to know/ask.
Often there are better, clearer ways to say the same thing; or ways to show rather than tell. And often you already have made it clear, so the adverb is redundant. ... And sometimes you want the adverb, despite the thousands of versions of advice telling you otherwise. Even King admits to using them, and he admits to using verbs other than "said" (eg: pleaded and shouted) but insists that adverbs in speech attribution should be kept to "the rarest most special occasions" (but he still doesn't say "never").