Adverb Hunter

Thought I had posted this earlier but couldn’t find it.

I’m about halfway through doing revisions to the novel (proofreading, improving phrasing, that sort of thing). Over at yourothermind.com (my software for writers blog) I noted that I had added a simple adverb detection system to YOM a few months ago. And then promptly forgot about it.
Well in the course of doing the novel edits I have started using it. And I wasn’t expecting much from it.
Wow was I wrong.
It seems I am an insidious (ab)user of adverbs. I sprinkle them profusely throughout my writing. In a 4000 word chapter I have removed as many as 40 adverbs. This was after all my other grammar and proofreading edits. These 40 words served no purpose other than to prop up weak verbs.

Now I did not remove all adverbs. I am a bit partial to the suckers and I think sometimes they do improve the flow of a sentence (and no I won’t arm wrestle adverb hating purists over that assertion; I don’t feel that strongly about it).