Freaky Friday

Some of the best lessons we ever learn are learned from past mistakes. The error of the past is the wisdom and success of the future.
Dale E. Turner
***

Ever have ‘one of those days’ ??? Well it seems here lately, I’ve had a few of those days, right in a row.

Nothing bad or anything, just crazy kind of weird?  I’m a person of routine. I like my routine, try to stick to my routine and when something comes up at the last minute, it kind of throws me off kilter. Not to mention the wind hampering outside activities.

As writer’s we remain private people. We want to share our stories but not our lives, right? Write! I’m always sharing my story; the good the bad and the downright ugly. Go ahead, ask me a question and I’ll be bluntly honest.

This is what we need to do as writer’s penning a novel. We can’t skirt around an issue that a character is having; we need to tackle a situation head on. Change is part of the inevitable with our story, so be sure to give said character a lot of bumps to maneuver over, hills to climb, and situations that he/she can get out of, or at least die trying.

Parts of us will flow into our characters. Pieces of our past will be sifted into the novel or short story. We can’t abandon the fact of all we know and have gained in our life, maybe even things that are not in our lives, we as writers can touch on.  Writing about killing someone for instance, would be a hard situation for me to write, but the good news is, I’ve read enough of King and Koontz to know how it is done.

I think Koontz is an avid fan of weaponry. He can give gripping detail down to the last pin of a revolver or handgun. He can enhance a weapon, even if it can’t be enhanced logically, he can make the weapon become a plausible piece of artillery. And that said piece, will be integral in the story (or not) but the man knows how to delve into the deepest darkest part of the human psyche.

As a writer I can’t dance around an issue because I don’t know it. This is where the research of any weapons, cars, places is essential to bringing your story into the hands of your readers. If you research and literally know your stuff, the reader can visualize the scene more clearly thus giving your story a reality, bringing it to life.

Freaky Fridays can happen anywhere to anyone...change is inevitable, and life happens.
Why not make some lemonade? :)

Breaking Rules

Breaking Rules.

I think it is cute when I see a toddler walking over to the cupboard door and trying to open it when he knows he isn’t supposed to. That is what toddlers do. Most moms are one-up on them though and have placed safety locks on the doors. This is when the tantrum begins because toddler kid can’t get his way.

Writers are not toddlers by any means, but they do need someone to tell them, "Hey that’s not the right way to do that." Or maybe, "Could you try it this way?" The writer doesn’t lose his/her temper they just drink in the gained knowledge and move on. Lesson learned.

Newcomers to the field of writing think it is cute to break the rules. They prance around with the, "I can do what I want" attitude. Then as soon as someone corrects them, they run for the hills to bury their head deep in the soil.

Writers need to be tough. A thick-skinned writer is like a desert lizard, they can take the heat all the while bathing in it too! Just remember that you are not a toddler and that you will continually need to learn and take big sips of the cup of knowledge. Place your hand out into the open air, letting someone grab hold of it as if to guide you.

Never fear criticism, never fear writing, always embrace the tree of life. It might have splinters but you’ve learned a great deal and will carry the experience with you a lifetime.

Today’s words:

dalliance (dah-lee-uh ns)
1. to dawdle
2. amorous toying: flirtation

halcyon (hal-see-uhn)
1. calm; peaceful; tranquil:
2. rich; wealthy; prosperous:
3. happy; joyful; carefree

miscreant (mis-cree-uh nt)
1. a disbeliever; heretic
2. villain

prevaricate (pri-var-i-cayt)
1. to speak falsely or misleadingly; deliberately misstate or create an incorrect impression; lie.

rectitude (rek-ti-tood)
1. rightness of principle or conduct; moral virtue: the rectitude of her motives.
2. righteous

Funday Monday!

Picking a title

Picking a title for your story is almost as hard as writing it (notice I said almost.) The title needs to grab the reader and have him/her scratching their heads wanting to read the inner circle of words that is making this story so compelling that it has the quirky title that it bears.

Short titles with a slant work well. I mean how many people read To Kill a Mockingbird only to find out it wasn’t about mockingbirds? But the title grabbed you enough to pick it up right? Do you judge a book by its cover? Of course you do, that is another reason you picked it up. Let’s try to aim for four to six words with your title.

Go to your local bookstore or library and look at the titles that grab you. Pull the book out and examine the cover. It will help if you are looking in the genre in which you yourself are writing. Sometimes titles in a cookbook aisle will feed the title for your mystery. "Dice it and Slice it" would be a quirky murder mystery title found after searching through the cookbook titles.

Keeping the buyer in mind and what your reader is looking for will help you in picking just the right title too. Make your reader a part of the title. Knowing the type of gal or guy that you are targeting will help in defining the perfect title. A romance wouldn’t need a title like "Fire Bomber" maybe "Pop Tart" for the elusive flirty woman in the romance? The secret woman within all of us perhaps? "Loose Lips, Lose Lovers". Ahh, the ever lovely alliteration for a title. It must be the poet in me who likes this one.

Whatever the case may be, choose a title wisely. Make it short and sweet, with the ability to roll right off the readers tongue making them want to see what is lurking inside that they MUST read!

Funday Monday Word day ~

felicitate ~ [fi-lis-i-teyt]
1. to compliment upon a happy event; congratulate.
2. Archaic. to make happy.

doggerel ~ [daw –gruhl]
comic or burlesque, and usually loose or irregular in measure.
rude; crude; poor.

gadfly ~ [gad-flahy]
1. any of various flies, as a stable fly or warble fly, that bite or annoy domestic animals.
2. a person who persistently annoys or provokes others with criticism, schemes, ideas, demands, requests, etc.

rhetoric ~ [ret-er-ik]

1. (in writing or speech) the undue use of exaggeration or display;
2. the art or science of all specialized literary uses of language in prose or verse, including the figures of speech.
3. the study of the effective use of language.

Funday Monday~Vulgarity

Vulgarity ~

Should we use vulgarity in our writing? Only if it suits the character you are writing for. I see many authors who like to use it like spilt milk, they’re all over the place with it. But I ask you this, does it really enhance the story?

Stephen King says in his book On Writing, don’t skirt around the talk just because it isn’t in you, the writer, to use foul language. Remember this is a character and if a gun-toting butt kicker comes into a bar and he is in the middle of starting a gang war, would he ask if he could use the bathroom to take a pee? No, he’d sure enough use the vulgar term and say, "Where’s the shithouse, I need to piss!"

I’ve read tons of Dean Koontz books and I am hard pressed to find a vulgar word even with his tough characters. It doesn’t take away from the character, Mr. Koontz I assume, finds it an unnecessary way to move the story forward. Don’t get me wrong, he has used vulgar words when they ARE necessary but they don’t absorb his book like a sponge in water. He is very adamant about writing his story with the respect of the reader in mind. Does he sell top-sellers? Repeatedly!

The choice is yours as the author to where you want to take your novel or short story. Keep in mind your reader though because they will be the ones who either like or dislike what you are writing and they are the ones who will PAY to read you.

Today’s Funday Monday Words:

vulgar ~
1. characterized by ignorance of or lack of good breeding or taste: vulgar ostentation.
2. indecent; obscene; lewd: a vulgar work; a vulgar gesture.
3. spoken by, or being in the language spoken by, the people generally; vernacular: vulgar tongue.
4. lacking in distinction, aesthetic value, or charm; banal; ordinary: a vulgar painting.

banal ~ commonplace; tired or petty

profane ~
1. characterized by irreverence or contempt for God or sacred principles or things; irreligious.
2. not devoted to holy or religious purposes; unconsecrated; secular
3. to treat (anything sacred) with irreverence or contempt; violate the sanctity of: to profane a shrine.
4. to misuse (anything that should be held in reverence or respect); defile; debase; employ basely or unworthily.

obscene ~
1. offensive to morality or decency; indecent; depraved: obscene language.
2. causing uncontrolled sexual desire.
3. abominable; disgusting; repulsive.

vernacular ~
1. (of language) native or indigenous
2. expressed or written in the native language of a place, as literary works: a vernacular poem.
3. using plain, everyday, ordinary language.

Funday Monday

Alliteration ~ The repetition of initial sounds in neighboring words.

Alliteration can be a fun form of free-form writing. Fanatical and in a frenzy of thought, thinkers normally noisily tap on the keys to make a monstrous sound. Creating a conundrum of calamity in their wake, the writer wriggles words of the same sound onto the page before them.
Poets use alliteration to make their words sound fluid. Writers use them in prose to make their words flow effortlessly off the page.

Wordsworth wrote: And sings a solitary song
------------------->That whistles in the wind.

Tennyson wrote: The moan of doves in immemorial elms,
---------------> And murmuring of innumerable bees.

Joni wrote: Bellflower bluebells basks in the meadow.
---------> Thorny thistles lie in the ghetto.

(remind me to share the entire poem The Secret Garden with you. It is full of alliteration AND meaning.)

Some might deem alliteration a tongue twister but I personally feel that alliteration has more to offer than the old saying, Sally sells seashells by the seashore. We’re talking a mild flow of repetition, not an annoying anomaly. When used in writing the writer has a tide of thought behind his/her skill of the written word. Use alliteration sparingly and watch normal words turn into poetic prose.

From Joni’s work:
I try to be all I can be
Sometimes more than I should
Should I be less than I could?
Or could I be what I should?

a-nom-a-ly ~
1. a deviation from the common rule, type, arrangement, or form.
2. an incongruity or inconsistency.
tongue twister ~
a phrase or sentence that is hard to say fast, usually because of alliteration or a sequence of nearly similar sounds

prose ~
The ordinary form of written or spoken language, without rhyme or meter; speech or writing, sometimes, specif., non-fictional writing, that is not poetry
id-i-om ~
1. the language or dialect of a people, region, class, etc.
2. a phrase, construction, or expression that is recognized as a unit in the usage of a given language and either differs from the usual syntactic patterns or has a meaning that differs from the literal meaning of its parts taken together (Ex.: not a word did she say; she heard it straight from the horse's mouth)

Funday Monday!

Malapropisms abound -- Use and Misuse of the English Language

In writing, using the proper word from the English language is essential. (I’m assuming my readers are using the English version.) Understanding the meanings, pronunciations, and the proper spelling of words and phrases becomes a no-brainer to the avid writer.

awoken ~~~ wary ~~~ bored
awaken ~~~ weary ~~~ board
fined ~~~ who ~~~ decadence
find ~~~ whom ~~~ decadents
wander ~~~ soared ~~~ inane
wonder ~~~sword ~~~ insane
including words like, accept and except, allusion and illusion, council, counsel, affect, effect.

You get the picture? Words can be confusing not only to the eye but also to the ear AND on the Microsoft word page. You would think our spellcheckers pick up all of these little words we toss at it? Well it doesn’t. It is not THAT smart. It is not here to do our thinking, only to assist us along the way in getting our work correct.

There are many other words that I find my fellow writers seem to get confused with. It is my nature to be a spell freak. I mean it, if I spell a word wrong I am kicking myself in the butt then I sit with my dictionary and a cup of tea reviewing the English language yet again. (note: a typo is NOT a word spelled wrong!)

We can never fully comprehend all the meanings of every word in the English language but it is reasonable to understand and expect that writers will know of the words in which they write. So be insistent on learning new words. Be incessant, persistent, and exigent in learning and only then will your writing take off to new heights.

~~~Monday Funday Word Day~~~

malapropism ~ mal-a-prop-izm
1. Ludicrous misuse of a word, especially by confusion with one of similar sound.
2. An example of such misuse? "Lead the way and we'll precede."

verbiage ~
1. An excess of words for the purpose; wordiness.
2. The manner in which something is expressed in words: software verbiage.

altruistic ~ al-tru-is-tic
1. unselfishly concerned for or devoted to the welfare of others.
2. Animal Behavior. of or pertaining to behavior by an animal that may be to its disadvantage but that benefits others of its kind, often its close relatives.