Benjamin Dreyer has some advice for both aspiring and established writers (and something Stephen King — who once wrote “I believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs” — would wholeheartedly embrace): “Go a week without writing ‘very,’ ‘rather,’ ‘really,’ ‘quite,’ and ‘in fact.’ ” (“Feel free to go the rest of your life without another ‘actually,’ [too.]”)
In his book Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style, Mr. Dreyer has penned what his publisher calls “A witty, informative guide to writing “good English” from Random House’s longtime copy chief and one of Twitter’s leading enforcers of proper grammar — a twenty-first-century Elements of Style.”
I think Messrs. King and Dreyer would agree that instead of going into overkill mode with your adverbs when writing, stretch your noodle to think of more appropriate/creative adjectives, metaphors or similes.
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Richard H. Harris 