Current Project:Spirit of the Lake
Status: 37,785 words
No, it’s not a new children's program to learn how to read. As writers we know the power of words. We've read books or short stories or heard songs that moved us. It could have been the characters, the premise, but I can guarantee you it was the words the writer used to make that character so real or the premise crystal clear or that song hit the right nerve.
When I started writing; like all new writers, I just wanted to get my ideas down in grammatically correct sentences. I had some killer sentences here and there and managed to get kudos from some contest judges. But I didn't fully appreciate the power of a well placed word.
Then I took a workshop on self editing. I pulled out the highlighters and began highlighting verbs, nouns, and adjectives. Wow! There were certain words I REALLY liked to use over and over again. And I still do, ask Lori. LOL By highlighting those words I realized I needed to dig deeper for better words. My "The New Roget's Thesaurus in Dictionary Form" has the ratty cover to prove I started digging deeper.
Now I spend half my time reading manuscripts from seasoned and not so seasoned writers. Reading a historical western and seeing contemporary words in the dialog or narrative makes my teeth clench. It also has me rereading my own work and checking words I'm unsure of at the online entomology dictionary. It has become my new best friend when writing. The thesaurus you pull up next to your word document is up continually when I write. Any time a word doesn’t seem significant enough for the sentence, emotion, or nuance I want, I'll spend ten minutes searching through the thesaurus typing in words that kind of mean what I want but don’t quite zing.
The right word makes my heart pump and an invisible hand pats me on the back for being serious about using the right word. And that my friend is "Word Power".
Do you have specials sites, books you use to find the right word? If so share. You never know when I'll find a better way to give my words power.
