By putting ‘ly’ in the Find box and releasing the program on its quest for adverbs, did I begin to see why this execution was necessary.  Of course, the program found ‘family’ (a no counter) or ‘flying’ (another no counter), but the rest of my darlings popped up like spring dandelions.

       Like the manuals said, adverbs do weaken a narrative and that dialogue can sound stronger without most adverbial crutches. Obviously “he said softly” can be “he whispered” or simply “he said, his breath whispering in her ear.” Some of my darlings did make me grin after I thought about them. “He growled menacingly” or  “He smiled happily”.  I had to laugh—or cry— because these were so redundant.

       I am  now gun shy about typing these darlings into a sentence after deleting a page worth of these darlings.  I now flinch  at the thought or sound of one.  Furthermore, I don’t even read other books the same because I have to analyze the darling to see why it was used—which is good practice.

      But, people use these darlings in conversations, which explains why the darlings come so naturally. So, it’s realistic to leave them in dialogue…but carefully.

       I recommend that you try this “Find” tool and check out your adverbial darlings. You can even use this tool for ‘ing’ to find passive darlings as well.  Give it a shot. I bet you will be surprised with what you find.