Spot the ‘ly’ word!
Adverbs are allegedly lazy writing, but sometimes they are the one right word.
In the following sample, 9 start the sentence. 'Surely' and 'only' put in three appearances each.
Unicorn appears once, but more are hiding in two other sentences. They’re shy, you know.
And how could I forget that unicorns are associated with water, until the story was done?
- How long, she wondered uneasily, since…
- flowing in one ear and out the other while completely bypassing the brain in between
- as cheaply as possible
- Hardly anyone remembered it
- Slowly, she pushed herself onto her knees
- Carefully, Ella pulled grass off her ankle.
- If only
- rosebushes in the City were too small and carefully tended to trap a housecat
- Surely, a creature that…
- trees on the prairie were nearly as rare as unicorns
- The artist nearly walked past the well.
- leaned over the barely-there wall
- Faintly, the bright scent reached her,
- Eagerly, she tossed the bucket in,
- climbed down as rapidly as her sore ankle and wrists allowed.
- Surely the gleam at the bottom
- she could not loose he fingers from their death-grip on the ladder. Suddenly exhausted, she leaned her head against the cool wall
- temptingly close to the water.
- wanted her first sip so badly
- drowned tragically
- her own silly self
- until her sturdy shoes were safely hooked on metal rungs
- from the first bite into a perfectly ripe peach
- regretfully poured the rest back
- her fingers scrabbled against the unevenly spaced stones of the well
- Bonelessly, she flopped down on the sweet prairie grass.
- hanging over a long drop with only fragile hollows sustaining her
- Gently, she patted her flask
- still tightly stoppered.
- She’d have to stand up eventually.
- pausing only to eat and doze
- for surely the hot and sweaty work would make them thirsty.
- Carefully, at the side of the bottom of the lowest ladder,