The Bane of My Writing Existence: -ly Adverbs

  Multiple writing books that I have read advise against using -ly adverbs, but none do so in such detail as Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Brown and Dave King, which I reviewed here. I still highly recommend it as a guide for new writers looking for tips on fiction writing mechanics.

     In their chapter on dialogue, the authors spend significant time showing that new writers are especially tempted to use adverbs when it comes to dialogue. Then they show why those -ly adverbs are unnecessary and should be avoided. For example, in my novel, I used the following line:

     “Get up, girl, and stop blithering!” The voice exclaimed angrily as Vixa found herself yanked to her feet by her arm. 

      

    A rewrite eliminating the unnecessary adverb becomes:

     "Get up, girl, and stop blithering!" The voice exclaimed as Vixa found herself yanked to her feet by her arm.

      

In that sentence, "angrily" is not a necessary word, since it is obvious from the context that the speaker is angry. "Angrily" is explaining dialogue that does not need explaining, and the authors of Self-Editing for Fiction Writers say that can be patronizing and distracting to readers if done over and over again.

     In the rewritten sentence, I eliminated the word "angrily" because the line itself indicates anger, between the dialogue itself and the action word "yanked."

     What about sentences where the emotion behind the dialogue is not obvious? The answer Self-Editing for Fiction Writers provides: fix the dialogue so an -ly adverb isn't necessary. It will make the writing more dynamic. I wrote the following line:

“A demon? Samil?” Vixa asked incredulously. “Those are just fables and myths.”

     Let's see what I can do to get rid of the adverb.

"A demon? Samil? You do not truly believe gods and demons walk the earth. All that is just fable and myth!" Vixa said.

     I suppose that is better. Well, at least it interferes less with the dialogue and distracts the reader less. Well, that is the intention. Let me know if that is true.

      Beyond dialogue, the authors of Self-Editing for Fiction Writers advise against using -ly adverbs in almost all situations, since writing can be so much more descriptive without them. The authors believe that almost every instance of an -ly adverb is just lazy writing, since the adverb is just fixing a verb that does not quite fit the circumstance. The writing will be more succinct, descriptive, and sophisticated if a more appropriate verb renders the adverb unnecessary. For instance, from my own writing:

     Without another word, Lord Laric turned from the room and went back into the nursery, roughly swinging the door shut behind him.

The sentence could be more precise if I wrote

     Without another word, Lord Laric turned and went back into the nursery, jerking the door shut behind him. 

"Jerking" conveys a more sudden action that is still rough, and it also seems to convey a little more about Lord Laric as a character than "roughly swinging" does.

     Unfortunately, I seem to use -ly adverbs a lot. Avoiding them will be a struggle. I will probably leave some in the first draft, just to keep my flow going, but I hope to have very few -ly adverbs in my final draft, since I think the challenge of getting rid of them makes my writing more dynamic. What do you all think?