Adverbs and adjectives: when to cut them
"Cut the adverbs" is one of the most repeated pieces of writing advice, and like all advice reduced to a slogan it's half true and half misleading. Adverbs and adjectives aren't enemies: some are ballast, others are exactly the word you need. Knowing how to tell them apart is more useful than eliminating them wholesale.
The adverb propping a weak verb
"Ran quickly", "whispered softly", "gripped tightly": in each the adverb is trying to save a generic verb. "Ran" is already fast; if you need more speed, the right verb is "bolted" or "rushed". "Whispered" is already soft. "Gripped" is already tight.
The practical rule: when you find an adverb attached to a verb, ask whether there's a single verb that says both things at once. Often there is, and it's stronger.
The adjective that repeats the noun
"A loud shout", "an unexpected surprise", "a free gift": the adjective adds nothing because the noun already contains it. These are redundancies the reader registers as noise.
Different is the adjective that narrows or specifies: "a strangled shout", "a bitter surprise". There the adjective changes the image, doesn't repeat it.
"Very", "really", "quite"
Generic intensifiers — "very", "really", "extremely", "quite", "rather" — almost always weaken instead of strengthening. "He was very tired" is weaker than "he was tired", because "very" is vague and shifts attention onto the degree instead of the state. If "tired" isn't enough, the solution is another word — "exhausted", "wrecked" — not an adverb in front.
In revision, searching for "very" and "really" with the text search and judging them one by one is one of the operations that pays off most.
When the adverb or adjective earns its place
An adverb earns its space when it's surprising or changes the sense of the verb: "he laughed, briefly" says something "he laughed" alone doesn't. "He closed the door, gently" in a moment of rage creates a deliberate contrast.
An adjective earns its space when it's specific and concrete: not "an old house" but "a house with peeling shutters". The rule isn't "fewer adjectives", it's "adjectives that work".
It isn't a witch hunt
Some writers, having heard the advice, remove every adverb and every adjective and get skeletal prose, all verbs and nouns, that sounds just as artificial as the overloaded kind. The goal isn't zero: it's that every extra word be there for a reason.
The final test is reading aloud: if a sentence sounds bare and ungainly, maybe you cut a word that was needed.
Doing the pass in revision
This cleanup is done badly while writing — it slows you down and blocks you — and well in a dedicated pass, once the chapter is finished. You read hunting for adverbs and adjectives, not the story. In NovLore version history freezes the chapter before the change, so you can lighten a scene thoroughly and then compare it with the previous version, to check you haven't made it arid.
Frequently asked questions
Should I eliminate all "-ly" adverbs?
No. Many are ballast, but some are the most economical word for real information ("he spoke slowly" when the slowness is deliberate and there's no verb that contains it). The rule is to judge them, not ban them.
Do adjectives in dialogue follow the same rules?
Partly. In dialogue the characters can speak redundantly or emphatically, because it's characterisation. The clampdown on adjectives concerns mainly the narrator's voice, where every extra word weighs more.
How many adjectives per noun are too many?
Two adjectives stacked before a noun ("an old big house") are usually one too many, and often the rhythm improves by splitting them or choosing one. Three are nearly always too many. But it isn't a law: what counts is the effect, not the count.