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I just wondered if anyone else has favourite words. If I have half a chance I will use words such as:
Murky Tentatively (adverb, I know) Erupted Murmured Glance (Oh how I love glance, it has a built in turn in it as well as looking)
etc...
I'll add to my list when I think of more. But these word surface with higher than average frequency, and I get a little frisson of pleasure if I feel it is a legitimate use of the word.
So, lists please...If I see something on someone else's list I also love to use I will add it to my list.
Why do I want to know this? Not sure...
EDITED TO ADD:
Sneer...I under-use that, but will now put it on my to-do list.
[This message has been edited by skadder (edited January 28, 2008).]
posted
Don't know if these are my favorites, but I find I use these often. Probably too often--they've become cliche for me, the first action that I reach for.
Glance is good... Slip (people are slipping out of doors, slipping into chairs, slipping a weapon into their hands...) Search--eyes searching, fingers searching, searching for meaning, blah blah. Seep--strength, blood, courage, what have you. Grip Ache Snort Catch--catching wind, catching on, catching someone's hand The--man, I seem to use this word everywhere!
quote:Why do I want to know this? Not sure...
Pah! Like we need a reason!
Added: Sneer (i've got a lot of sarcastic and mean characters, I guess)
Oh yeah, also, for a few months I was really in love with the word "occluded" and tried to slip it in everywhere. Sadly, it only survived once, and even that instance got vehemently challenged by my writing group.
[This message has been edited by annepin (edited January 28, 2008).]
[This message has been edited by annepin (edited January 28, 2008).]
More adds: Perhaps Surely
[This message has been edited by annepin (edited January 28, 2008).]
posted
Some of the types words that I use a lot: Honor Anything related to undead( favorite fantasy creature type) gold (or other things related to money) think/thought fight maybe
Posts: 80 | Registered: Oct 2007
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IB, I agree with you on plethora. Reminds of the Three Amigos.
Jefe: I have put many beautiful pinatas in the storeroom, each of them filled with little suprises. El Guapo: Many pinatas? Jefe: Oh yes, many! El Guapo: Would you say I have a plethora of pinatas? Jefe: A what? El Guapo: A *plethora*. Jefe: Oh yes, you have a plethora. El Guapo: Jefe, what is a plethora? Jefe: Why, El Guapo? El Guapo: Well, you told me I have a plethora. And I just would like to know if you know what a plethora is. I would not like to think that a person would tell someone he has a plethora, and then find out that that person has *no idea* what it means to have a plethora. Jefe: Forgive me, El Guapo. I know that I, Jefe, do not have your superior intellect and education. But could it be that once again, you are angry at something else, and are looking to take it out on me?
Seriously, though, when I find words I particularly like, I add them to a list, and search for those words as part of my editing process. I try to eliminate as many of them as I can. (Unless, in fact, I haven't used them much--then I let them stay.) I find the words that are used about five to fifteen times in one novel are the ones I have to watch out for. The ones used more often are just more common, and can bear the repetition.
I also find that I no longer "like" many individual words (though I do have the ones I'm more inclined to include in my writing). Rather, I like the way the words are used. Without context, a single word doesn't do much for me.
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For me, moist is just the word itself, be it moist cake or a hand moistened with sweat. It's the way the word sounds and feels coming out of your mouth.
Shudder! I've used that word more now that I ever have in one sitting before. Ick!
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Not exactly a word, but I recently realized I have the tendency to have a sentence structure preference:
Before [person] could [verb], [event]. It's not really that often that you have a character, "about to" do something, and get interrupted. I had to go back and change/delete most of these occurences.
"Before John could stand, Fred got up, went to the fridge, got an apple, ate it, and returned to his seat" type situations lol
I'm also a fan of the word "However." But these are mostly trouble words that I keep an eye out for, not really words I LIKE to use.
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My favourite word is, without a doubt, Harumphed. It's almost never appropriate, but when it is.....
Posts: 161 | Registered: Dec 2007
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Marzo, off the top of your head? Huh, I thought I was pretty literate, but I need a dictionary for some of your words!
How often do you use words that would be a stretch for many readers? How do you determine how much of a stetch it will be (since you know it, of course). This happens often, when I'm speaking... co-workers give me a blank look, or say "uh-huh", and I think, I did it again.
Off the top of a head that loves a good word when it finds it (and often seeks them out in places like The Phrontistery), mind. Those are words I've memorized because I particularly like them, not ones I use very often.
quote:How often do you use words that would be a stretch for many readers? How do you determine how much of a stetch it will be (since you know it, of course). This happens often, when I'm speaking... co-workers give me a blank look, or say "uh-huh", and I think, I did it again.
I hear you there. It's hard for me to find the line between what others see as "arrogantly obtuse vocabulary" and "good use of a word." I speak how I speak, and write how I write, and sometimes that causes problems. I think it used to more than it does now since I've become aware of it, though. I suppose that's all you can do, and trust to an editor to tell you when something reads as more pedantic or obscure than you intended. Leaving a work aside and coming back to it fresh helps me, too.
Of course, genre and character (especially in first-person POV) determine what you can and can't get away with.
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While I do not suffer from Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia, there are a plethora of words of which I am cognizant, that I prune unmercifully from my writing.
I saw a poster once(in an English class) that read: Never use a long word when a diminutive one will suffice. I got the point and have tried to live by it.
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"I saw a poster once(in an English class) that read: Never use a long word when a diminutive one will suffice. I got the point and have tried to live by it."
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. I like it--reminds me of fruit. Penelope plucked the plump plums.
