The Storytellers Forum Adverbs...Pros and Cons

This is an area where I am looking for a lot of help.  I have NO training or education in the art of writing and it's been 35 years since I was in an English class.  I keep reading reviews where the reviewer is criticizing for the use of adverbs.  I love adverbs and am probably one of the biggest users of them.  I'm wondering why this is such a no-no.  Can anyone shed any light?

(I have no formal training in writing, either - I don't consider the three semesters of Fiction Writing that I took at university to be real training - but I've learned a lot about it just from reading and paying attention to what I read, plus reading what professional writers have to say about writing fiction.  There are very few rules, but there are a lot of good guidelines.)  I've seen a lot of "advice" to writers state that adverbs must be avoided at all costs, that use of any word ending in -ly is the mark of a hack.  This is wrong.   I think where the "Never Use Adverbs" thing comes from is an overreaction to some inexperienced writers (and some who should know better) using them all the time.  I'm sure you've seen it yourself:  every dialogue tag is 'he said amusedly' or 'she giggled ironically.'  When possible - and this means when it can be done without resorting to excess wordage or inappropriate description - the verb should do the work, and in that case no adverb is needed.  But sometimes the verb doesn't match with how the dialogue is actually said:  '"I love you, too," she said sarcastically.'  Yes, this could have been written as '"I love you, too," she said, sarcasm dripping from her voice like acid,' but what if that disrupts the flow of the scene to use so many words?  

The pearls of wisdom I received somewhere regarding adverbs is this, go through your document and search for the adverbs (-ly ending words) and see if any can be cut. If you use stronger verbs there you do not need adverbs. Does that mean I believe ALL adverbs should go, NO, but adverbs should be used like salt while cooking, a little goes a long ways!

I'm only sixteen, so my advice may not be the best. Adverbs get annoying to read, though, in my opinion. You can describe how something is happening by using other words and just being more descriptive. I doubt I ever use adverbs because I try to use an extensive amount of imagery.

I went to this talk by this author that had published two books that were doing pretty well and the current one was going to be a movie. He talked about how there wasn't one adverb in any of his work. He read an excerpt and it was kind of dry. There was action and it was described pretty well, but at the same time it seemed odd to me. I wouldn't go crazy with them, because I agree it can get tiresome if they are used heavily. (Gosh I hope I don't have too many, now that I think of it.)

"Seriously, What's So Bad About Adverbs?"      

This article was extremely helpful to me, Weaver.  Thanks!  I've bookmarked it and will refer to it regularly.  Now I'm off to edit everything I've ever written.