Two articles per week is all you’re getting out of me for the time being. This has happened before: a combination of no time and new toys. The toys are pretty cool, however—and one of them has given me an idea for filling up Sunday. It won’t happen this Sunday, though. Another is Sim City 4, a game with brobdingnagianly addictive qualities. I haven’t actually gotten it yet, or I would be playing it now.

I’ve started reading Douglas Adams again for the first time in multiple years. I’m reading Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul. I never noticed this before, but he uses a lot of adverbs. And by “a lot”, I mean, “a whole lot”. The only reason it’s become of interest to me now is because a few weeks ago I read someone’s website with tips on writing, and they said to avoid adverbs in the same manner one might avoid clichés: like the plague. In the past I haven’t made an effort to avoid them, although I have been paying more attention to it recently. It’s my goal to reduce these weak words in my writing, except in cases where it is used for specfic comedic effect. For example, if I were trying too hard to be funny, I might construct an awkward adverb out of an already awkward word. Say, hypothetically, brobdingnagianly.

So I let them in, yes. They’re guilty pleasures, these adverbs. They mean I don’t have to think. Stronger verbs? Bah! That takes work. Easier to take some other interesting word and stick -ly on the end.

Anyway, my first thought was well if Douglas Adams can do it, then so can I. But as I read on I came to the realization that adverbs, when one looks for them, get annoying, fast. Especially considering the frequency with which Adams ladles them into the stew of his manuscript. They’re not [usually|generally|really|largely|mostly] good.

That’s my random thought ‘o the day. The next time I write, I won’t, because I’ll be ineluctably glued to Sim City.

-Ted