Excellent Article on the Use of Adverbs

[Rob]

Highly recommended. And although not strictly webcomics related writing improvements carry over and scale to other mediums. So read it and get better!

http://io9.com/5437610/seriously-whats-so-bad-about-adverbs

 

[Mike C.]

Nice article, thanks for the post.

[Pete]

Good article.  I actually had an English major friend review a manuscript of mine about five years ago, and that was one of the strongest things she told me - watch out for the adverbs.  When I went back and reread the manuscript, I was appalled at how many I used.  To this day I try to steer clear of them, but use them when the situation calls for it.

To be honest, there shouldn't be much call for it in a webcomic.  Adverbs are descriptive words, and most of your description should be done visually.  Unless you have a narrator, I don't see where adverbs would be must needed.

[Rob]

Actually narration was exactly what I was thinking of when I referred this article. Long form comics also use narration for some of the more complex plot points.

And I have used narration in my crappy, short, Badly Written, Badly Drawn joke comics. For example my Christmas Comic had no characters or dialogue, just a box with some narration.

So it does apply, it's just the mileage may vary.

For me, I do both comics and I write, and if you write comics chances are you write other things and as I said, any improvement in writing translates into improvement in all writing (I hope). So I think it was a useful article. 

[Pete]

I certainly meant no offense.  I read a large amount of webcomics, and I've very rarely seen the narration thing done, so I was only speaking from experience.  Regardless, I agree, it's a great article and applies to all forms of writing.

[Rob]

Man you are going to have to do a lot more than that to offend me. We're talking in the magnitude of bodliy harm or Miley Cyrus music here. 

I just wanted to set the record straight in that I do believe it is slightly applicable to web comics. Just as all things writing would. In my humble opinion.

[CorvusErebus]

It's certainly applicable to some people. It's a matter of taste really. Trevor could probably tell you an interesting story about narration in webcomics when he gets here.

Me? I try to avoid narration like a cat to water. My preference is to let the art explain the details. Even speech can sometimes get in the way. But at the same time, I love Frank Miller and Jeph Loebs writing on Batman, and they both narrate more then text novels. So it's really a matter of preference. But it's a good skill to have no matter what, because you never know when you might need it.

Good find Rob.

[TakaComics]

On one of my projects, the writer really wants a noir style comic with heavy narration. I don't like it myself, but he wants it in there, and sometimes its very hefty. In that narration, he tends to use more adjectives. It adds flavor to the scene that we might not be able to tell easily in comic form. Temperature, city history, why a certain place is important and relevant, etc.

Adverbs describe a verb, so when you use them, and adjectives for that matter, use them to add to your words, rather than just to describe something.

"Quickly walking..." is better than "Quickly rushing..." - "Rushing" on its own has speed. We tend to see "walking" as a slower pace.

Another way to use adverbs is to prepare the reader for the next page in advance. Having a person entering a cave in your comic might be the last panel on the page. To build intensity, you might use something ike "He entered the dark, cold cave." The next page might clearly show him shivering in darkness around stalactites, but the writer can give a reader a small hint, preparing them for some new part of the story. If you read about someone entering that cave, its more engaging than just watching them do it. You, the reader, also feel like you're entering the cave, not knowing what's ahead.

Like all writing, you have to learn when to use certain things, and when not to use them. Just because something exists isn't grounds for using it, but it's also not something you can always throw out. If it "feels right," put it in.

[TTallan]

Now I'm afraid to go back and read my various attempts at prose. I'm certain they're littered with unnecessary adverbs. 

Food for thought. Thanks for posting the link!

[Funderbunk]

In the book, 'On Writing', by Stephen King, Stephen discourages all use of adverbs, but follows it by 'even I have not been able to stamp out all my adverbs - sometimes they are just necessary'. That's pretty much how I feel about it - use them when they are absolutely necessary.