Thank you.
Those books by Rowling, Brown and vast numbers of other commercially successful novels went through the same agent/editor process.
I agree with Firebrain on this one. It's simple. They sometimes work and sometimes don't.
Rowling admits she was rejected many times before "Philosopher's Stone" found a publisher - would she have been picked up sooner if her prose had been tighter? I guess we'll never know.
For many people involved in the publishing business the worth of a piece of work is judged in terms of the money it makes. People in writing forums are free, of course, to judge based on the number of adverbs the work contains, or anything else at all.As far as the side discussion about famous/wealthy writers, bank account balances being the final determination of a work's worth -- I feel for those that find validity in this.
I read "she said suggestively" as sexily, sluttishly, etc. but i'm 70% sure that's not what the OP meant, more like wink wink nudge nudge awkwardly eager kind of suggestively.
Why the massive hate for adverbs in dialogue tags? Can it ever be done "right?"
I'm not talking Tom Swifties ("They had to amputate them both at the ankles," said Tom defeatedly), or about qualifiers that could be turned into stronger verbs ("Said suggestively" from the thread title should be "suggested") but about cases where the adverb actually adds something to the sentence.
For example,
"You know I love you," he said coldly.
is miles away from
"You know I love you," he said softly.
And while I think "softly" could be omitted from the second one, I feel "coldly" adds something to the first example that would be hard to replicate with a different verb or by changing the dialogue.
But anything, anything other than "You know I love you," he said lovingly.
So. Adverbs in dialogue tags. All bad? Or can they work in certain cases?
a tinge of colour may creep across their cheeks with some of the other words I use.
And those salty terms are the ones I remove when editing!
And what would the pitfall be?I think JK Rowling is a great example to use if you want to show the pitfalls of over-reliance on adverbs.
First: You get to see the progression, how she used fewer adverbs as her skill increased.
Second: Because she's a bestselling author, it's reasonable to expect that most people have access to her works. Would you rather I used an obscure thirties SF writer like Harl Vincent?
And what would the pitfall be?
And she went on to earn staggering amounts of money from it. Readers loved it. What's the pitfall?it weakened her writing, by even her OWN admission......
Rowling and how many others. Did you know she went on to earn staggering amounts of money? What's the pitfall?other than that, and the very valid point Rowling herself had considerable difficulty finding an agent despite her tremendous creativity and storytelling ability
While she continued to earn staggering amounts of money from it. Readers loved it. What's the pitfall?and the fact, as noted, she herself consciously chose to self-edit (did you think her first book was better than the progressive ones where she learned to trim her own adverb tags??)
Are any of them as wealthy as Rowling? Close even?and the fact a fair number of agents and editors do talk about adverb over-use in their blogs
Here's one of my favourite quotes on adverbs for you. See if you get it. Someone posted it in another thread a few days ago:I see no pitfalls at all.....
Get it?Rowling made a great book DESPITE using adverbs like they were meth
Ever read Carrie?Wow, it looks like I missed a great discussion in this thread, but I'm going to have to stick to what Steven King and Elmore Leonard said about adverbs...which has already been brought up in this thread. I think King said in his book On Writing that what has happened just before, or during the dialog should tell the reader what they need to know, or the tone if you will.
Sure she is.Let me break this down for you simply.
Rowling is the EXCEPTION, not the rule.