Flash Fiction: for writers, readers, editors, publishers, & fans

Friday

Friday Flash Prompt: What To Do About Adjectives and Adverbs?

When I think of adverbs, I think of Saturday morning's Schoolhouse Rock message:

Lolly, Lolly, Lolly, get your adverbs here.
Lolly, Lolly, Lolly, got some adverbs here.
Come on down to Lolly's, get the adverbs here!
You're going to need
If you write or read,
Or even think about it.

°

How much has changed! "They" now say, if you're going to write, you don't need adverbs or adjectives. Well, that might be a bit of an overstatement. But adjectives & adverbs are something they say should be avoided, the logic being that weak nouns need adjectives and weak verbs need adverbs. Why say "slowly walked" when you could say sauntered? Write with strong verbs & nouns, and you won't need to modify them.

°

Friday's Prompt gives you two options:

  1. Write a flash that contains no adjectives or adverbs.
  2. Write a flash that purposely fills the flash with adjectives and/or adverbs. Make the title "Modifiers."

°

For further reading, check out FlashFiction.Net's suggested readings of flash fiction and prose poetry collections, anthologies, and craft books, by clicking here.

Subscribe to FlashFiction.Net by Email

One comment

From Todd B Stevens

I see an evo­lu­tion of uses of these words. There was a time in which we car­pet bombed adjec­tives and adverbs. We called it Vic­to­ri­an Lit­er­a­ture. Great expen­di­ture of effort for small­er effects. I con­sid­er my adverbs and adjec­tives laser tar­get­ed. I use them to destroy nouns with­out affect­ing the sur­round­ing verbs and appa­ra­tus. But poet­ry is more about con­trast than prose, even flash prose. I’ll try both these prompts.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *