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One thing I battled with in iA Writer is its objection to adverbs and adjectives. Eventually I came to appreciate its position, realizing that they add little v

One thing I battled with in iA Writer is its objection to adverbs and adjectives. Eventually I came to appreciate its position, realizing that they add little value to text.

Filligree 3y ago
That sounds like it’s not very useful for fiction, then?
- llm_nerd 3y ago
  Obviously you can turn that syntax highlighting off. Add that the majority of writing is non-fiction (I'd wager 99.99%+ of written words). Or least purported to be non-fiction.
- turuttituff2000 3y ago
  Mark Twain: “When you catch an adjective, kill it.” Stephen King: “The road to hell is paved with adverbs”. But what do they know about fiction? :)
  - crossroadsguy 3y ago
    Stephen King once said, “Ms Rowling seems to have never met one [adverbs] she didn't like" But what would Rowling know about storytelling :) I have never even read Rowling, nor have I read King. But such restrictions and imposing of so called “rules”, or what is good what is not, are absurd when comes art. I would urge anyone to not let such decrees by the famous to dictate their style, let alone a software.
    - turuttituff2000 3y ago
      Whatever rocks your art. Being especially careful with adverbs and adjectives is common practice among experienced writers. More examples: “Adjectives are frequently the greatest enemy of the substantive.” – Voltaire “[I was taught] to distrust adjectives as I would later learn to distrust certain people in certain situations.” – Ernest Hemingway “The adjective is the banana peel of the parts of speech.” – Clifton Paul Fadiman “[The adjective] is the one part of speech first seized upon and worked to death by novices and inferior writers.” – J.I. Rodale “Use no superfluous word, no adjective, which does not reveal something.” – Ezra Pound “The adjective has not been built that can pull a weak or inaccurate noun out of a tight place.” – E.B. White “[Whoever writes in English] is struggling against vagueness, against obscurity, against the lure of the decorative adjective.” – George Orwell “Most adjectives are also unnecessary. Like adverbs, they are sprinkled into sentences by writers who don’t stop to think that the concept is already in the noun.” – William Zissner
- themadturk 3y ago
  The killing of excess adjectives and adverbs is very good for fiction.
kstrauser 3y ago
Ah, I hate that you were downvoted for that. For those who haven't used it, yes, iA Writer tries to steer you away from adverbs: https://ia.net/writer/support/basics/writing-tips/parts-of-speech https://ia.net/writer/support/basics/writing-tips/parts-of-s... You can turn that off. I did at first; all the colors in the English prose I was writing distracted me. I came to appreciate that, though. I realized that I used adverbs and adjectives much more than I intended to, and now they stand out. Along those lines, I've also realized that I overuse "great", "love", "hope", "literally", and "but". I added those to iA Writer's custom patterns, and now it pesters me when I use those words. Sometimes I mean to, but I literally love to put them in every sentence and hope it turns out great. iA Writer says, hey, you might want to reconsider your word choices.

One thing I battled with in iA Writer is its objection to adverbs and adjectives. Eventually I came to appreciate its position, realizing that they add little value to text.

Filligree 3y ago

That sounds like it’s not very useful for fiction, then?

llm_nerd 3y ago
Obviously you can turn that syntax highlighting off. Add that the majority of writing is non-fiction (I'd wager 99.99%+ of written words). Or least purported to be non-fiction.
turuttituff2000 3y ago
Mark Twain: “When you catch an adjective, kill it.” Stephen King: “The road to hell is paved with adverbs”. But what do they know about fiction? :)
- crossroadsguy 3y ago
  Stephen King once said, “Ms Rowling seems to have never met one [adverbs] she didn't like" But what would Rowling know about storytelling :) I have never even read Rowling, nor have I read King. But such restrictions and imposing of so called “rules”, or what is good what is not, are absurd when comes art. I would urge anyone to not let such decrees by the famous to dictate their style, let alone a software.
  - turuttituff2000 3y ago
    Whatever rocks your art. Being especially careful with adverbs and adjectives is common practice among experienced writers. More examples: “Adjectives are frequently the greatest enemy of the substantive.” – Voltaire “[I was taught] to distrust adjectives as I would later learn to distrust certain people in certain situations.” – Ernest Hemingway “The adjective is the banana peel of the parts of speech.” – Clifton Paul Fadiman “[The adjective] is the one part of speech first seized upon and worked to death by novices and inferior writers.” – J.I. Rodale “Use no superfluous word, no adjective, which does not reveal something.” – Ezra Pound “The adjective has not been built that can pull a weak or inaccurate noun out of a tight place.” – E.B. White “[Whoever writes in English] is struggling against vagueness, against obscurity, against the lure of the decorative adjective.” – George Orwell “Most adjectives are also unnecessary. Like adverbs, they are sprinkled into sentences by writers who don’t stop to think that the concept is already in the noun.” – William Zissner
themadturk 3y ago
The killing of excess adjectives and adverbs is very good for fiction.

kstrauser 3y ago

Ah, I hate that you were downvoted for that. For those who haven't used it, yes, iA Writer tries to steer you away from adverbs: https://ia.net/writer/support/basics/writing-tips/parts-of-speech https://ia.net/writer/support/basics/writing-tips/parts-of-s... You can turn that off. I did at first; all the colors in the English prose I was writing distracted me. I came to appreciate that, though. I realized that I used adverbs and adjectives much more than I intended to, and now they stand out. Along those lines, I've also realized that I overuse "great", "love", "hope", "literally", and "but". I added those to iA Writer's custom patterns, and now it pesters me when I use those words. Sometimes I mean to, but I literally love to put them in every sentence and hope it turns out great. iA Writer says, hey, you might want to reconsider your word choices.