My workshop leader told me to cut every adverb from my prompts and it ruined 12 drafts before I got it

Wendy Garcia · 2026-10-07T02:00:05.214141+00:00

Back in January I joined a Tuesday night writing group at the library in Akron and the leader, this retired English teacher named Doreen, told me my prompts were soft because I kept leaning on words like slowly and suddenly. I ignored her for six weeks because I figured adverbs helped set the mood, and my prompt responses kept falling flat at 300 words with no scene. Then I tried rewriting one prompt about a bus stop in the rain and stripped out 9 adverbs, and suddenly the scene had a real person in it instead of fog. Now I still think her rule is too strict for creepy or dreamy prompts where the slowing down is the whole point. So my question is do you ban adverbs in your prompts or just cap them?

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My workshop leader told me to cut every adverb from my prompts and it ruined 12 drafts before I got it | Creative Writing Prompts - Guest Forum