Adverbially yours

[desperance]

When I was a kid, when I was a babywriter, no one ever told me that adverbs were weak. I think I figured out independently that the right verb unmodified would be stronger (it is all about the verbs), but even so: I never developed that aversion to adverbs that seems very much embedded in contemporary authorial practice (and, particularly, in contemporary teaching; I have been involved with creative-writing courses that were devoted to the less-is-more school to the point of fetishism), and I use them cheerfully, determinedly, sometimes wilfully.

Today's example may be extreme, even extravagant, but even so: I aver that in context, "straighter" is not as strong as "more straightly".