Alexander Chee took a writing class at Wesleyan from Annie Dillard. In an essay describing his experience Chee lays out a lot of Dillard’s precepts on how to write well.
In this passage Dillard is pushing her students to go back over their writing with one particular feature in mind:
Have you used the right verbs? Is that the precise verb for that precise thing? Remember that adverbs are a sign that you’ve used the wrong verb. Verbs control when something is happening in the mind of the reader. Think carefully.
Wait. What just happened?
The last two words in the original text are a bit hidden. The whole written out goes: “Think carefully — when did this happen in relation to that? And is that how you’ve described it?”
You’d think, if the adverb was meant as a joke, it would stand on its own, not be tidied behind two concluding questions. But, hey, I laughed.
source:
How to Write an Autobiographical Novel: essays
by Alexander Chee
2018. Mariner Books / Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, New York
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