Got scolded at a local writer's meetup for using too many adverbs

I was at the Downtown Lit Group last Tuesday when a retired editor interrupted my reading to say my prose was "cluttered up with ly words." She pulled out a red pen and crossed out five adverbs on my page, which stung but also made me realize how lazy my writing had gotten. Has anyone else had a blunt critique like that change how they draft their stories?

2 comments

2 Comments

river1901mo ago

That retired editor sounds like a real piece of work but she might be right though.

julia921mo ago

What exactly did she call "right" though?