Making Adverbs Work or Avoiding Your Own Tom Swifties

It's been some time since I've posted anything controversial. The subject of adverbs is one that usually gets some argument from my students at UCLA (writers tend to love their adverbs) so maybe it will from you, too. Mind, you. I'm not suggesting you wipe all adverbs off the map. Instead examine each one. By doing so you may cause them to strengthen your writing rather than weaken it. In the meantime, please continue to visit this site to ask your editing questions and learn from others who have asked questions of their own. You'll also find other articles on writing at http://www.carolynhowardjohnson.redenginepress.com/free_content.htm. Here's a short little article from the page on taglines and adverbs.

Let Tom Swift Inform Your Writing

By Carolyn Howard-Johnson



Ever heard of Tom Swifties?

Maybe you're too young to be familiar with the classic Tom Swift adventures for boys. Or maybe you're a girl who never read a Tom Swift book nor cares to.

Tom Swifties are one-line jokes lampooning the style of Victor Appleton, the author of the original Tom Swift books. People started making jokes about his overuse of adverbs and the unnecessary taglines he wrote into his dialogue. Like the Polish jokes, they were so much fun that a whole series of them became available for the pun-loving. The author of these classics, of course, laughed all the way to the bank. But that's a lesson for one of my marketing seminars, not this article on writing.

Tom Swifties are something from America's literary past. This is now. I haven't dared to go to the new books in the series but I assume that this outdated writing has been eliminated from them.

You'll want to minimize tags and adverbs in your writing, too!

An example from one of the Swift books will suffice to let you know what to watch for. (Thank you to Roy Peter Clark for the example.)

"'Look!'suddenly exclaimed Ned. 'There's the agent now!...I'm going to speak to him!' impulsively declared Ned.'"

Even authors who swear that adverbs are always very, very good things to use and are reluctant to give up their clever taglines can see how, well . . . awful this is. In fact, I have to reassure people the quotation is real! Some of the writing that comes to the desks of agents and editors looks almost as bad. Here's how you can make sure yours doesn't:

1. Use taglines only when one is necessary for the reader to know who is speaking.

2. Almost always choose "he said" or "she said" over anything too cute, exuberant or wordy like "declared" and "exclaimed."

3. Cut the "ly" words ruthlessly, not only in dialogue tags but everywhere. You will find specific techniques for strengthening your writing in the process of eliminating adverbs in The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success. This book will also give you some computer tricks for making these edits easy.


You don't have to know the reasons or the techniques for making the "ly" and tagline edits easy, of course. You can follow Nike's advice and "Just do it!" But learning all you can about turning adverbs to your advantage is never a bad thing.

The Frugal Editor is available on Amazon.com now. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0978515870/

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, award-winning author of The Frugal Book Promoter: How to Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success. Both books are winners of USA Book News "Best Professional Book" award the first in the HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers holds Book Publicists of Southern California's coveted Irwin Award. The Frugal Editor is also the winner of Reader Views Literary Awards. Carolyn is also the author of "The Great First Impression Book Proposal: Everything You Need To Know To Sell Your Book in 20 Minutes or Less," one of Amazon's famous 49 cent Shorts. Learn more at www.HowToDoItFrugally.com.


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Carolyn Howard-Johnson edits and consults on issues of publishing. Find her The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success on
Amazon. Learn more about her other authors' aids at www.howtodoitfrugally.com.