Defending adverbs exuberantly if conditionally

Recently, I’ve been thinking about adverbs. Everyone hates adverbs. But I say they hate them foolishly and incorrectly. I called this newsletter Counter Craft because I wanted to offer counterintuitive craft advice. One of my earliest Counter Craft articles was titled “A Defense of Adverbs,” and I thought about that old post again when I saw some recent adverb discourse. I try not to repeat topics in this newsletter. However, since the initial adverb article is paywalled—I post all articles for free and then paywall older pieces for my lovely subscribers—and since it was literally posted my first week on Substack back in 2021 when I had very few followers, well, I hope you won’t mind me repeating myself. Before I do that, let me remind you that my new novel Metallic Realms was just published this month! It’s getting great reviews, including a recent rave in the Substack-hosted The Bulwark. If you like satirical novels, science fiction, and/or novels about stumbling and bumbling writer ... Read full article.