Avoid Redundant Phrases

Thomas Jefferson: "The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do."

A redundant expression (pleonasm) is a group of words, usually a pair, in which at least one word is superfluous. Some expressions are used colloquially while others are down right silly no matter where they are uttered. Many have come into standard use through repetition or as part of a vocation. Null and void, cease and desist, honest truth, terms and conditions, and sworn affidavit are pleonasms in the legal field. 

Some pleonasms have become used often as to become “correct”: joined together (in holy matrimony), safe haven, PIN number (Personal Identification Number number), ATM machine (Automated Teller Machine machine), heat up and mental telepathy. 

Some humorous expressions are: hot water heater (shouldn’t it heat up cold water?), bare naked (if you are naked, you are bare), armed gunman (versus a gunman without arms; how does he hold his gun then?), temporary loan (all loans are temporary otherwise is it not a gift?), true fact (are there false facts?), end result (is there a beginning result?), foreign imports (versus domestic imports?), tuna fish (are tuna anything but fish?), and my favorite, free gifts. Writing using redundant expressions is not better writing, only longer writing.

Here are some redundant expressions to be avoided, and forever, and ever never used.

month of June/ July                          clearly evident                     first began

postpone until later                           no way, shape or form        balsa wood

evolve over time                               strangled to death                new beginning

final outcome                                    tiny bit                                advance warning

introduced a new                              refer back to                        usual habit  

consensus of opinion                        brief moment                       eliminate altogether

final conclusion                                fellow teammates                 hopeful optimism

definitely decided                             evil fiend                              poisonous venom  

thoughtful deliberations                   utter annihilation                   sum total          

no trespassing allowed                     past records                          old proverb          

my personal opinion                        past experience                    closed fist    

added bonus                                     current trend                       future plans

different varieties                              already exists                      kneel down

permeate throughout                         reason why                         rise up

close proximity/scrutiny                   proceed ahead                     general public

visible to the eye                              usual habit                           hurry up
reason is because                              proposed plan                     frozen ice

disregard altogether                          wept tears                            filled to capacity

new recruit                                        exactly identical                  but nevertheless
evolve over time                               absolutely necessary            passing fad
please RSVP                                     ask the question                  pre-recorded
illustrated drawing                             revert back                          reason why
different kinds                                   exact identity                       cheap price
write down                                        absolute given                     safe sanctuary
permeate throughout                          proposed plan                     honest truth
brief moment                                     personally I                         lag behind
re-elect for another term                   complete monopoly             head up 
spell out in detail                              unexpected emergency        still persists                                                                                                                       

“How often have you heard a friend say something like this: ‘It was an unexpected surprise when a pair of twin babies was born at 12 midnight’? What is a surprise if not unexpected? What are twins if not a pair? Who can be born but a baby? When is midnight if not at 12? The expressions we use are full of redundancies. Your friend could just as well have said: ‘It was a surprise when twins were born at midnight’ with far less repetition.” (www.fun-with-words.com/redundant_phrases.html)           

This site list many redundant phrases.

 http://grammar.about.com/od/words/a/redundancies_3.htm

The Power of Slang

Slang, the informal words and phrases in common usage, is essential to setting the era and creating tone in your writing.  Knowing the correct terms for the time period enables a writer to construct realistic settings, create authentic characters and strengthen their credibility as a writer.

I am currently reading a novel set in the 1920s-era recently completed by fellow blogger Jenny Leo. From the first paragraph, Jenny’s characters spring to life amid the chaos and excitement of The Roaring Twenties in 20th century America. Obviously, Jenny did her homework.

Creating a world in correct historical context demands herculean effort.  In order to create that world for her readers – to make it real – Jenny thoroughly investigated the “who, what, when, where, why and how,” of life during the 1920s.  She learned how they addressed one another and the fashion of the day.  She researched what type of transportation folks used, what foods they ate, their customs, what games and entertainment they enjoyed, who was famous, world events, and how folks in 1920s Chicago talked – their slang.

Writers today are lucky to have the Internet at hand.  It is a phenomenal research tool.  Just type in most any phrase or question and websites pop up by the thousands, if not millions.  The only downside is getting lost in the overwhelming amount of background information you'll discover.  Past that bugaboo, researching on the Internet is like a treasure hunt – you never know what you’ll find.     

Just type in “slang of the 1920s,” and over one million sites pop up, compiled by enthusiasts and historians of every degree.  As with every era, dozens of terms came into use during the Roaring Twenties.  While some of these terms disappeared through the years, others remain in common use today.  With a little investigation, you’ll discover the perfect words to add spice and authenticity to your work.    

1920s slang still in use:

Baloney - nonsense! 

Cat's Meow (Cat’s pajamas) - something splendid or stylish

Corked, tanked, primed, jazzed, plastered, embalmed,  or lit – drunk.

Dead soldier - an empty beer bottle 

Glad rags - "going out on the town" clothes 

Piker - (1) a cheapskate (2) a coward

Putting on the Ritz - for the Ritz Hotel in Paris; doing something in high style         

Wet Blanket - a solemn person, a killjoy

What's eating you? - what's wrong

You slay me - that's funny

1920s slang that disappeared through time:

Applesauce- an expletive same as horsefeathers; as in "Ah applesauce!"

Bank's Closed - no kissing or making out - i.e. - "Sorry, Mac, the bank's closed." 

Bee's Knees - an extraordinary person, thing, idea; the ultimate

Breezer - a convertible car 

Butt me - I'll take a cigarette 

Flivver - a Model T; after 1928, could mean any old broken down car 

Mrs. Grundy - a priggish or extremely tight-laced person

"Now you're on the trolley!" - now you've got it, now you're right

Spifflicated, corked, scrooched, zozzled, owled, ossified or fried to the hat - drunk

Struggle Buggy - the backseat of a car. A parent's worst nightmare.

Hmm ... 1920s: struggle buggy; 1970s: shaggin’ wagon – some things never change – but you still have to know the correct terminology or you will lose your reader. 

One helpful website I found, writersdreamtools.com, is, like, totally awesome.  Just click on “History by Decades,” and you’ll find a cultural history for New Slang Words for every decade from 1650 to the present.  It's groovy, man!  Other lists include: Events, Who’s ‘In’, Who Died, Bad Guys, What’s ‘In’, Entertainment, Music, Literature, Art, Fashion & Beauty, Media, Money, Religion, and Science.  I promise, it's wicked cool.  

Although the Internet is fast and vast, don’t forget other resources including personal interviews; books on the subject of slang; or books, movies, newspapers, and magazines from each era.  A trip to the library will undoubtedly benefit your research.  Some libraries have special local history and/or genealogical sections where older works are housed.  Some museums also allow research of their archived material, but most require an appointment, so be sure to check first before you head out. 

And don’t forget to take a new look at those old "fact" books you still have sitting on your shelves.  One of my favorites: “Dr. Chase’s RECIPES of INFORMATION for EVERYBODY: Enlarged and Improved by R. A. Beal.  The title page reads: An invaluable collection of about eight hundred Practical Recipes For: Merchants, Grocers, Saloon-Keepers, Physicians, Druggists, Tanners, Shoemakers, Harness Makers, Painters, Jewelers, Blacksmiths, Tinners, Gunsmiths, Farriers, Barbers, Bakers, Dyers, Renovators, Farmers, and Families Generally.

From recipes for making Sham-Champagne – A Purely Temperance Drink, to How to Cure the Vapors, this tattered tome of home remedies offers a peek into the life of real people living in the 1880s; and invaluable terminology for a writer.

One word of warning, don’t trust your memory too far.  You may have lived through the early 1980s, but do you really remember what year home computers became popular or whether or not anyone had cell phones back then?  What television shows were popular, what movies, what bands were playing and what were the big stories of the day?  Trusting your memory may be a shortcut to a mistake that could have been avoided.  

Now let’s have some fun.  In what decade would the following sentences have been said?  Try to figure out the correct decade yourself, but if you have trouble, try the Internet for the answer.  Good luck, and May the Force Be With You. (1977)

Hey, don’t have a cow, man.  It’s a bummer that your foxy mama freaked out.  Chill.   

If you want to be a hep cat, the next time you flap your lips, use some of these slang terms, and you will be cooking with gas.

Mastering the Metaphor

The greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor – Aristotle

Metaphor Definition: A metaphor is a figure of speech containing an implied comparison, in which a word or phrase ordinarily and primarily used of one thing is applied to another.  A metaphor is distinct from, but related to a simile, which is also a comparison. The primary difference is that a simile uses the word like or as to compare two things, while a metaphor simply suggests that the dissimilar things are the same. 

When spot-on, well written metaphors and similes add a level of interest to words on a page. They make the character, action, or event become more alive, more real. Through comparison, writers are able to evoke a more visceral reaction from their readers and engage them on an emotional level – creating more powerful writing.

… he was thinking she was holding what was left of him in her little soap-weathered hands, blowing on him like tinder she was trying to keep alight.   – Robert Clark “Mr. White’s Confession”

Outstanding metaphors and similes always catch my attention.  In fact, when I read one I particularly like, I’ll jot it down – in the hope that one day the ability to write suitable metaphors will somehow rub off on me. 

Then he rose, bobbing heavily, steadily upward, like wreckage surfacing on the sea…and shambled to the door, his body moving as if in two unsynchronized halves, a donkey cart with mismatched wheels. – Robert Clark “Mr. White’s Confession”

For years, I have compiled a list of extraordinary metaphors and similes when I find them.  Most novels include a few skillfully executed comparisons, but never have I found so many well written comparisons as I discovered while reading “Mr. White’s Confession,” by Seattle author Robert Clark.  I underlined passages, scribbled in the margins and turned down page corner after page corner in an effort to return to his descriptive words – sometimes two or even three gems to a page.

Then the icebox clicked on with a sound like pigeons chortling and settled into a pulsing drone of rheumy, brittle metal.  – Robert Clark “Mr. White’s Confession”

“Mr. White’s Confession,” is a gritty tale of good and evil populated with sympathetic characters and suspenseful action.  The novel was awarded both the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Book Award for Fiction and the Edgar Award for Best Novel in 1999. 

Robert Clark has written a book that is instantly familiar and continually surprising, a meditation on memory, love, and loss wrapped in the wrinkled suit of a classic American genre.  James Lileks, Minneapolis Star-Tribune (Another brilliant metaphor, by the way.)

The story, set in 1939 St. Paul Minnesota, centers on the death of a beautiful dime-a-dance girl and the search for her killer by Police Lieutenant Wesley Horner, a lonely widower.  The chief suspect is Herbert White, a strange looking and peculiar-acting man who suffers from a type of amnesia and whose hobby is photographing beautiful women.  Horner’s case is compromised when a malevolent member of the police force sets out to frame Mr. White and threatens to expose Horner’s budding relationship with an under-aged girl. 

He pulled on his hat brim again, and the brim angled down in line with his long, fierce nose, his incredulous chin, the landslide of his face.  Smoke spumed from his nostrils like water from a sluice. – Robert Clark “Mr. White’s Confession”

Perfectly placed, thoughtfully pertinent, and precisely written, Clark’s metaphors add depth to his descriptions of actions, characters, and emotions.  One after another drew me in, giving pause while pictures materialized in my mind.  I felt more like I was watching a movie than reading a book.    

I had met the strange Mr. White:

He sat, balding and rotund, on his stool, like an egg in an eggcup.

... White – who Wesley had told her was big as a shithouse and as weird as toadstools …  

 She could only see him … befuddled, blinking at the world like a mole with his first pair of glasses. 

A guy like White could be standing in the right place at the wrong time and have a murder charge fall onto his head like bird shit into his hair …

I had seen Carla Marie’s body:                    

In the violet dawn light of Saturday morning, her red hair was deep as blue neon, and her skin was silvery white, except at the bottom of her body, where the blood had settled and colored her scarlet and brown and copper green.

… Nash knelt again and drew his finger over the crimson and lavender arc that ran around her neck. 

A garter stay, unsheathed from her stocking, luffed like a ship’s pennant and slapped her leg. 

I had felt Wesley’s pain:

That was rich, now that he was picking his brains up off the floor like pieces of broken mirror, a dumb cop with no more smarts than a cabbage.

But he saw it made absolutely no difference what he did, that causes and effects about which Wesley had no say-so had been laid down like ties and rails and he was on a runaway train highballing down them.

Wesley sat at his desk thinking these things, or rather letting them settle onto him like a coat he was accustomed to wear …

 Crafting great metaphors takes patience – but if you take the time, the impact you add to your writing will be worth your effort as you increase your ability to evoke images, sights and sounds that engage your reader on an emotional level.  Check out more details about the seven steps to writing a metaphor at http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Metaphor

How to Write a Metaphor in 7 Steps

1.  Know what a metaphor is and study a few examples.

2.  Think imaginatively about what you're trying to describe. What characteristics does it have? What does it do? How does it make you feel? Does it have a smell or taste? Brainstorm – think outside the box.

3.  Free-associate.

4.  Decide what kind of mood you’d like to set.

5.  Run with it. Write a few sentences, a paragraph, or a page to see where your comparisons take you. 

6.  Read everything aloud.

7. Transform your comparisons into metaphors.

Below, I’ve included a few more of my favorite metaphors and similes from Clark’s masterful pen. I hope they inspire you to sprinkle a few more of them throughout your writing.

… and the cigarette pack lay on the oyster-tiled floor and even as they were leaving began to unknot itself with an imperceptible rustle of cellophane, green and writing like a rupturing cocoon.

The clock glowed Palmolive green on the nightstand, and once a minute, the big hand thunked ahead. 

… and the big radio with a façade that looked like the society people’s Presbyterian church on Summit Avenue. 

… he pictured the waitress – that spinster Clara, the one whose brother lost a leg working in the Soo Line yards – coming by with her face screwed up like a sour, wrung-out washrag and saying, “Coffee for you and your daughter

Farrell leaned his insolent, stilt-skinny ass on Wesley’s desk.  “So?” he said.

The frost was settling into the road with the deepening nightfall, and the gravel rang like broken glass under their feet.

The first weeds and grasses were coming up amid the mud, thin and straggly like the wisps of a baby’s hair.

…the house was abrim with the smell of roast turkey, like butter folded into smoking gold.

Robert Clark Biography

(Condensed from rusoffagency.com)

Seattle writer Robert Clark was born and raised in St. Paul, Minnesota. He received a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of California, Berkeley, and did graduate study in Medieval Studies at the University of London.  Following a career as a freelance journalist and editor specializing in travel, food, and wine; he wrote his first book, “The Solace of Food: A Life of James Beard.”  His other non-fiction books include River of the West, a chronicle of the Columbia River, and My Grandfather’s House, a memoir that was named a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award in biography.

Clark is the author of four novels: In the Deep Midwinter; Lives of the Artists; Love Among the Ruins, a double BookSense 76 pick in both hardcover and paper; and Mr. White’s Confession, which won the Edgar Award for Best Novel as well as the PNBA Award. It is currently in pre-production as a motion picture by James B. Harris, producer and collaborator of the late Stanley Kubrick.

Clark lives in Seattle with his wife, Caroline, and children, Tessa and Andrew. He teaches fiction and non-fiction writing at universities, conferences, and workshops. Most recently, he was a Guggenheim fellow and is currently working on a book of memoir/essays.

Should We Use Foul Language in Our Stories and What is A Grawlix?

The answer to the first question rests solely on you and your conscience. How comfortable are you writing profanity? Is it against your moral principles? Do you use it yourself? Do you include it for “artistic” reasons? Do you think profanity is disrespectful to other people? Also consider this: are we in charge of reflecting the present culture, reporters of fact, or do we want to act as filters for our society? All of these are questions you can answer rather easily.

There is a lot of history for the use of foul language. Shakespeare used it often (“Out, damn'd spot! out, I say!”) The naughty Lady of Bath uttered a very bad word in Canterbury Tales! But, then go back and read books by Mickey Spillane, Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammet and see how eruditely they handled it. We understood the characters and scenes without profanity.

After you answer the questions in the first paragraph, the next question to ask is who is your audience? Are you trying to appeal to readers who like Jack Reacher, the ex-solider MP character in Lee Child’s books or Father Kavanagh in Jan Karon’s charming stories set in the small town of Mitford?

The next answer to seek is does it work for your character?  Would your character actually say these things in a scene? Is she or he at a party on the beach with adult friends or is he whispering to his wife in church? Does the situation call for it? Is she angry or upset enough to swear?

There are several ways of handling profanity besides ignoring it. An author can choose to use replacement words like jerk, heck, or gosh. Freakin’ and friggin’ have crept into more common use for the usually abhorred f-word. Or, a scene could read something like
            “The aliens surprised me with the abduction and I silently swore at them as they encapsulated my body.”

Another way is to use a grawlix. A grawlix is a series of typographical marks that represent letters in a profane word.  Mort Walker invented the term in 1964. He is the author of the comic strips Beetle Bailey and Hi & Lois. Cartoonists are using grawlixes more frequently than story writers.

Asterisks and disemvoweling are two other methods of using swearing without using the exact words. Asterisks have caught on to suggest the rest of the letters in a profanity---s***---for example. Disemvoweling is a neologism that is defined as removing all the vowels in a word as a measure of censure. It is used most often is texting---Grt 2 c u---but can be used in main stream stories to replace swear words or on car license plate---“PGCME” on an obstetrician’s BMW for instance.

On a final note, swearing is of two natures: religious or vulgarisms. We all have taught our children that certain words are “bathroom” words used only in that context and not in other circumstances or locations. It has always seemed to me to say “Oh my God” or “OMG” is a form of religious swearing, but to a few billion people around the world, it is just another phrase to describe amazement.

Cole Porter wrote in 1934

 “Good authors, too, who once knew better words

Now only use four letter words writing prose.

Anything goes!”

Slang Terms for Law Enforcement

I was recently reading an English mystery and the author talked about "panda cars." It took me a minute and absorbing the story content to realize he was talking about police cars. I did research on the term “panda cars.” This opened up a plethora of terms about law enforcement terms. While looking up panda car, I came across several sources that listed dialectic and slang terms for police cars and police officers used in the United States. You might choose to use one of the following terms to make your story or novel more believable or fun.

Alternate names for police cars:

---in England the slang term is “jam sandwiches” because their cars are white with an orange strip running through the middle, i.e., orange jam between two pieces of white bread

---cherry tops, bubble tops (red light atop police cars)

---spooks, bares (aka bears), no see ‘ums (unmarked cars)

---cruiser cars, squad cars, area cars, marked unit, chase cars, Tijuana taxi

---Black Maria (Mariah), Black Mary for police vans; origin unknown but it is thought it started in Great Britain where police carriages painted black and drawn by horses were used for transporting large numbers of prisoners or police officers. Often called Mother’s Heart as there is always “room for one more”

---paddy wagon; origin possibly from US immigrants where people of Irish descent were often policemen or the beds of horse drawn wagons were padded; pound wagon

---bear in the sky, bear in the air, spy in the sky, fly in the sky (police officers in helicopters)

Alternate names for lights on police cars:

---blue light specials, bubble gum lights, rotary lights, bar lights (most commonly used now), roof lights, flashers, turret lights, rotating lights

Alternate sounds for sirens:

---hi-lo (sound can be regulated to high or low), continuous, wails or yelps

Alternate names for police officers; (remember some of these are used by gang members, criminals, movie characters and are not to be perceived as racial slurs by the author)

---5-0 (from TV series (Hawaii 5-0 which got its name from Hawaii being the 50^th state admitted to the union)

--pig, bacon, swine derived from the 1960’s and now popular again

---Barney (for Barney Fife in the Andy Griffith TV show); Bronze (from Mel Gibson movie “Mad Max”)

---bear (Smoky The Bear because of the uniform hats many police departments issue)

---berry, blueboy, boys in blue (because of the color of the uniforms)

---bulls (usually from police for railroad cars but often for regular police)

---city kitty, cherry toppers, copper

---do-do nutters, the do-dos (stereotype of policemen always stopping to buy doughnuts

---DRCs ( dirty rotten coppers)

---Evil Knieval or county mountie (motorcycle police personnel)

---New York’s (or other city) finest; flatfoot, the fuzz

---FBI (fibbies, first bunch of idiots)

---urban cowboys, or urban posses; mounties (police on horseback)

---LEO (law enforcement officer), local yokel

---mama bear, and derogatorily Miss Piggy, honey bear (female officer )

---Po-po or Po slang used by youth and gang artists

---rollers, snippers (usually used by blacks in North America)

---The Thin Blue Line

---disco pig (policeman driving in a police vehicle with lights flashing)

---furry torpedo (police dog)

---shoofly (undercover police investigating other police officers)

Of other interest to writers of crime are the codes used by police personnel to communicate via their radios. Research showed me that there are no standardized codes used across the United States. The meaning of a number such as 10-40 or 10-67 can vary from state to state. Check with the law enforcement department in the state in which your scene takes place.

www.urbandictionary.com; www.thefeedictionary.com; www.wikipedia.com

Neologisms Specifically Retronyms and Portmanteau Words

A retronym is a new name, modifier or phrase for an object or event used to differentiate it from the original form or version. A change is necessary because the first word is ambiguous or technology has advanced so that a single word or phrase no longer adequately describes the word. One example is The Great War. The "war to end all wars" it was called until another world-wide set of hostilities erupted. Thus The Great War was retronymed World War I and the second global war World War II. "Please bring me a glass of milk and my book" no long gives enough information.

MILK: whole, 2%, 1%, fat free, soy, organic, calcium enriched, lactose free, chocolate, raw, acidophilus, condensed, evaporated, powered, buttermilk

BOOK: hard cover, soft cover, paperback, trade paperback, self-published, e-book, audio, phone book, address book

LAWN MOWER: push, electric or riding

MOVIES: silent, talkies, DVDs, in-theater, in-home, video cams

COFFEE : regular, decaf, flavored, instant, latte, espresso, iced, Irish, white, frappe, cappuccino, cafe au lait + 65 others

MOTHER: biological, adoptive, surrogate

OVEN: microwave, conventional, convection, gas, electric, toaster

COKE: regular, caffeine free, diet, Classic, diet caffeine free

SOAP: bar, gel, anti-bacterial, body wash, f0am, lotion, natural, African black, exfoliating, anti-aging, acne fighting

TELEPHONE: push button, rotary dial, land-line, mobile, cell, wireless, iChat, Skype

TELEVISION: analog, digital, plasma, high definition, LCD, wall-mount, stand alone

SUIT: men's suits, pants suit, skirt suit

FRESHMAN: first year student, red shirt, true freshman, walk-on

DIAPER: cloth, disposable

BICYCLE: two-wheeler, unicycle, electric, recumbent, retro, mountain, street, racing

WATER: tap, sparkling, designer brand, flavored, distilled, filtered, rain water, gray water, bottled

COPY: hard copy, carbon copy, electronic copy, paper copy, FAX

[New York Times, "Retronym", William Safire, 1/7/2007]

PORTMANTEAU WORDS are new words made from two existing words. (Lewis Carroll, 1871 in Alice Through The Looking Glass) Plural: portmanteaus or portmanteaux. In French, a portmanteau is a suitcase with two compartments.

BIONIC: biology+electronic

MOPED: motor+pedal

MOTEL: motor+hotel

REPUBLICRAT: middle of the road political believer

EZINE: electronic+magazine

BLOG: web+log

SNIRT: snow+dirt especially blowing in the air

GLOBISH: globe+English, an international business language of 1,500 English words and grammatical structure understood and used around the world

GLEETS: gloves+feet, shoes with individual spaces for toes

GEEP: hybrid animal mixing a goat+a sheep

CHUNNEL: English Channel+tunnel

INTERNET: international network

GOOD-BYE: God+be(with)+you

CROISSANDWICH: croissant+sandwich ingredients

GENOME: gene+chromosome

VOLUNTOLD: volunteer+told, being told you were "volunteered" for a task

DIABESITY: diabetes+obesity

PIXEL: picture+element

KARAOKE: two Japanese words meaning empty orchestra

PULSAR: pulsating+star

LIGER: lion+tiger

Look this week for another post on neologisms: backronyms.

Amazing Greats: Stalking the Super Superlative

My recent post on copywriting reminded me that one of the biggest challenges facing copywriters (especially those who specialize in marketing and promotion) is to come up with fresh, original ways to say that something is good. After all, how many times can I say a product is great, fantastic, or new-and-improved before readers start tuning me out?

I was in high school when I first realized the inadequacy of the word nice. The very common description "Jane Doe is nice" could mean anything or nothing, and generally meant only that Jane Doe exhibited no overtly objectionable qualities, at least in the opinion of the speaker. Faint praise at best. Nice told me next to nothing about Jane. What exactly made her nice? Was she friendly? Polite? Smart? Funny? Thoughtful? Kind to animals? Skilled at games? Without really being aware of it, I started a little personal boycott of nice, substituting more precise descriptions. I didn't always succeed--after all, nice is an overused word for a reason--but the attempt did boost my vocabulary a bit.

Recalling this former aversion to nice, I consulted my friend Webster to discover what the word actually means. Imagine my surprise to find that nice comes from a Middle English word meaning foolish, wanton, silly, or simple. Huh? Only further down the list do we find the more common modern take on nice: pleasing, agreeable, appropriate, fitting, well-bred, virtuous, respectable, polite, and kind. In my opinion, any of those terms goes a lot further in describing a person than nice does.

What is your favorite positive descriptor of choice? Are you fond of awesome? Did you know that awe comes from the Greek achos, meaning "pain," and is "an emotion variously combining dread, veneration, or wonder"? If you're using it to describe a hamburger, you might want to rethink your word choice.

Another adjective currently repeated ad nauseum is amazing (apparently most effective if you draw out the second syllable: ah-MAAAAAAY-zing!). Knowing that this word descends from the Middle English amasen, meaning bewilder, confuse, or perplex, "to show or cause astonishment," do you still want to tell your kid every day, "You're amazing!"? (You might, but you should at least understand what it is that you're saying!)

Of course we all know that language changes over time, and Middle English definitions don't necessarily apply to current usage. My point is to encourage you to be precise in your descriptions--to choose descriptive words carefully and not always fall back on the current well-worn favorite. Keep a list of appealing descriptions you run across in your reading, and refer to it if you get stuck. Think carefully about word choices and soon you'll be an awesome writer who gets amazing results! And what could be nicer than that?

More, Reading Like a Writer

Francine Prose says she, like most writers, maybe all, learned to write by writing and, by example, by reading books.  This should be very encouraging for all of us who want to become better writers - we must read  books - especially literature,  and write, write, write. 

Referring again  to Prose’s  book, Reading Like a Writer A Guide For People Who Love Books And For Those Who Want to Write Them (Monday’s blog,  The Right Word),  she writes,  “In the ongoing process of becoming a writer, I read and re-read the authors I most loved. I read for pleasure, first, but also more analytically, conscious of style , of diction, and of how sentences were formed and information was being conveyed, how the writer was structuring  a plot, creating characters, employing detail and dialogue. And as I wrote, I discovered  that writing, like reading was done one word at a time, one punctuation mark at a time. It required what  a friend calls “putting every word on trial for its life”: cutting a phrase, removing a comma, and putting the comma back in.”

Now, there’s the challenge,  isn’t it?   To put  every word on trial for its life. Then,  like a high court   judge making a ruling , the writer  alone must  decide which phrase  or punctuation mark is sent to the scrap pile, and which one gets a reprieve.     And while pondering the judgment to be made , should it go,  or should it stay — must ask the questions Prose  presents, “ Is this the best word I can find ? Is my  meaning clear? Can a word or phrase be cut  from this without sacrificing  anything essential ?  - perhaps the most important question is : Is this grammatical?” 

While Prose  recommends  writers have  a grammar manual, and  favors  Strunk and White’s  The Elements  of Style , she also points out, “ One essential and telling difference  between learning from a style manual and learning from literature is that  any how -to- book will, almost by definition, tell you how not to write.  In that way, manuals of style are a little like writing workshops, and have the same disadvantage—a pedagogy that involves warnings about what might be broken and directions on how to fix it—as opposed to learning from literature, which teaches by positive model.”

The example Prose directs us to is Virginia Woolf :  “We can thank our lucky stars that no one told Virginia Woolf that a sentence as long as the one with which she begins “On Being Ill” might turn out to be hopelessly clumsy or unclear. The marvel , of course, is not how long the sentence is-  181 words!- but how perfectly comprehensible, graceful, witty, intelligent,   and pleasurable we find it to  read.  It’s not the sentence’s gigantism but rather its lucidity that makes it so worth studying and breaking down its component parts. “
                                     

                                                 
                                                              

I read  (and re-read) Woolf’s sentence for the first  time  today,   and can understand why  Prose  describes the reading of it as she does:  “Pausing  to breathe at each comma, we find ourselves amid a series of  dependent clauses that break over us like waves, clauses that increase in length, complexity, and intensity as the aspects of illness that we are invited to consider grow more elaborate and imaginative, whisking us from undiscovered countries to deserts to flowered lawns and down into the abyss from which we are lifted by the voice of the dentist whom we mistake for God welcoming us into heaven. Until at last it all comes together in a single word, this: when we think of this.”

For those of you who have never read Woolf’s introductory sentence to her twenty - five page essay "On Being Ill" —what Prose calls ‘one of the most complex and virtuosic sentences in all of literature’, I  include it now for you to  read, and  consider the writer’s skill in choosing one word instead of another, and how it captivates and holds our attention, drawing us further into the topic she writes of.

Considering how common illness is, how tremendous the spiritual change that it brings, how astonishing, when the lights of health go down, the undiscovered countries that are then disclosed, what wastes and deserts of the soul a slight attack of influenza brings to view, what precipices and lawns sprinkled with bright flowers a little rise of temperature reveals, what ancient  and obdurate oaks are uprooted in us by the act of sickness, how we go down into the pit of death and feel the waters of annihilation close above  our heads and wake thinking to find ourselves in the presence of the angels and the harpers when we have a tooth out and come to the surface in the dentist’s arm-in-chair and confuse his “Rinse the mouth– rinse the mouth” with the greeting of the Deity stooping  from  the floor of  Heaven to welcome us– when we think of this, as we are so frequently forced  to think of it , it becomes strange indeed that illness has not taken its place with love and battle and jealousy among the prime themes of literature.


** Note: For more information about Virginia Woolf, and her writing visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Woolf

To purchase On Being Ill  http://www.amazon.com/Being-Ill-Virginia-Woolf/dp/1930464061

Twenty-Three Skidoo! A Writer's Guide to Slang

Slang and trendy vocabulary can be tricky for a writer to use. In a contemporary novel, slang can shorten your story's shelf life unnecessarily--a recurring problem with slang-heavy YA novels that can start to sound stale moments after they land on the shelf.

On the other hand, slang is your friend if you use it judiciously to enhance your story's time period and setting. When a character says "groovy" or "right on!" your reader will be looking for the love beads and sandals, making it a perfect detail to depict the Summer of Love, but not so hot for the Summer of '42.

How do you pick up on the slang and sayings of a particular era? One way is through reference books designed for that purpose. My current project is a novel set in the Roaring Twenties. Since I'm not quite old enough to have lived through that era, I'm relying heavily on a handy volume called The Writer's Guide to Everyday Life from Prohibition through World War II, by Marc McCutcheon. These Writer's Guides, published by Writer's Digest Books, are available for many different eras: the Renaissance, the Middle Ages, Colonial America, Victorian England, and others. They're fun and informative to read even if you're not currently working on a story.

Another great source of period-correct language is old magazines and newspapers. Check your library, antique stores, rummage sales, or online sources like eBay for periodicals published in the era of your story. For even more accurate details, zero in on the magazines your particular character would be most likely to read.

For example, a chic middle-aged matron in November 1936 might have read Delineator, which carried a delightful article titled, "A New Silhouette Means Your Winter Wardrobe Must be Chosen with Wisdom" that talks about "a smart afternoon dress in gray velvet," not to mention "a blouse for the gayest evening frivolities." Who talks like that nowadays? But your character might!

In a different story, a teenager in 1955 may have read Seventeen or Mademoiselle. Even a quick glance at magazines of this era reveals information about styles, movie stars, music trends, and concerns of teenage girls, such as how to tell a "dreamboat" from a "wolf." The Seventeen magazine of 2011 shows that girls are still interested in boys--surprise, surprise--but their concerns are substantially different.

Finding and using appropriate slang can turn your story from sad sack to hunky dory in no time flat, so for crying out loud, get cracking and don't give me none of that jive!

Writing Dialects: Not As Easy As It Sounds, Y'All

“Rungway! Rungway!" yelled a man at a person driving down the street. If the tourist had been native to the area, he would have understood “Wrong way!” and realized he was driving the wrong way down a one way street. The first person was speaking a dialect unfamiliar to a visitor.

Not all people speak the same language the same way. Every language has dialects, also accents and idiolects, which are divided by social groups (Valley Girl and Ebonics), class and geographic regions. There are almost no grammatical differences region to region but word pronunciation is frequently markedly different and some words are replaced. A good example: soda versus pop for carbonated soft drinks. Vocabulary is the most fluid aspect of dialects and grammar the least.

Habits of speech become rungs on the ladder of success both in both the social and business arenas. There is no “correct English” as such but most Americans realize a certain set of grammar rules, syntax and pronunciation. American broadcasters in radio and television learn to speak what is now called “TV network American” which is close to the dialect of most Midwesterners. They are easily understood by all Americans. That is the same reason many companies who offer goods via catalogs have based the telephone ordering part of their business in the Midwest. People often speak using their own dialect when in a relaxed and unguarded situation reserving TV network American when the occasion requires it.

Within some dialects, subdialects emerge but usually do not become permanent. Young people parrot the speech of popular singers who in turn are influenced by Southern white or black speech patterns. Youngsters frequently weaken vowels before an “L”: sale = sell, really = rilly, and feel = fill. They also like creating their own dialects to talk more secretly and to define social status among themselves. By the time these words come into general usage, the young people have dropped them and gone on to other words. Today’s rapid development of communications technology will probably slow down the evolution of dialects and languages. For the first time in history, a dialect called Network Standard is being used all across the country without regard to the usual stratifications of speech. Class distinction, race and poverty will slow down this trend but more and more people will be added to the users as they grow up in a computer dominated world. As a sidelight, many children are not being taught cursive writing because teachers say they all will be using personal communication devices and never need to put their thoughts on paper via a pencil or pen.

Try asking someone what those sandwiches with many layers between thick slices of buns are called. In Philadelphia they are hoagies; NY heroes; New Orleans po’ boys; Pittsburgh submarines; Miami Cuban sandwiches; and strangely enough in Wisconsin Garibaldis. A heavy rainstorm is called a dam-buster in AL, hay-rotter in VA, leak-finder in WI, million dollar rain in MS, tree-bender in Maine, ditch-worker in IL, sewer-clogger in MI, mud-sender in CA, and gully washer in 3 dozen other states. Other more localized names are goose-drowners, toad stranglers and duck drenchers. Most of us say “turn off the lights” but in the South is it “cut off the lights” and in the Northeast “shut off the lights”. Floridians “mash” button while the rest of us “push” them to open an elevator door or start the washing machine.

Eighty-two per cent of the people in the United States speak English but we are often separated by different dialects. For writers this presents a dilemma. How much of a dialect do you use in your stories? If your story is set in the South how many local words will add color to your characters versus run the risk of them being misunderstood? Another conundrum for the successful writer.

Acronyms - Initialisms & Abbreviations

With the popularity and rise in real-time text-based communications, such as Facebook, Twitter, instant messaging, e-mail, Internet and online gaming services, chat rooms, discussion boards and mobile phone text messaging (SMS), came the emergence of a new language tailored to the immediacy and compactness of these new communication media. - fun-with-words.com

Until now, I’ve done my best to stay out of this new world. I’ve declined to learn how to text, and I don’t tweet on Twitter. I routinely ignore people who send texts to my cell phone – after all, it costs me 20¢ to read the darn things! I have a tad-bit of knowledge about the language used by texters and tweeters, but after I read FYI, I’m pretty much in the dark.

According to Net Lingua (the language of the Internet), I’m a member of those unenlightened individuals who remain “confused by the baffling symbols and meaningless strings of letters that litter e-mails, chat rooms, and text messages.”

Yup, that’s me, and I’ve come to realize this isolationist policy (82 million Americans do text regularly) is causing me to fall out of sync with the current word usage of my fellow bloggers, my sisters, (not to mention my grandkids) and even the Oxford English Dictionary.

During a Blog-Meister meeting in May, it was suggested we hook up to Twitter and other social networks in order to promote our blog. Yikes! Then a few weeks ago, my sisters declared “Mary Jane needs to learn how to text,” and promptly united in communicating to me only through text messages. Ouch!

And the last straw? Just yesterday I discovered the highly educated folks at the Oxford English Dictionary announced their official acceptance of terms such as OMG (Oh, my God), FYI (for your information), and LOL (laugh out loud), into the lexicon of official English words. They say they’ve become part of our everyday language, so have included them in their latest dictionary. Fiddlesticks!

I guess it's time to figure out what this "slanguage" is all about. TISNF!

It may be JMO, but I found the Internet Language Dictionary at Net Lingo (www.netlingo.com) to have the most comprehensive list of definitions about computers, the Internet, and the online world of business, technology, and communication. Their lists include thousands of Acronyms & Text Messaging Shorthand Terms, Symbols, and Smileys to help people communicate through the various types of communication media. The following definitions are from this site:

Online Jargon (a.k.a. cyberslang, electronic language, e-mail style, geek-speak, hi-tech lingo, hybrid shorthand, netspeak, slang, slanguage, and textese)

Online jargon is the specialized language, chat acronyms, text message shorthand, and technical lingo that is used while communicating in the online world. Like slang, it can develop as a kind of shorthand, to express ideas that are frequently discussed between members of a group, though it can also be developed deliberately using chosen terms.

Here's an example: "My smmr hols wr CWOT. B4, we used 2go2 NY 2C my bro, his GF & thr 3 :-@ kids FTF. ILNY, it's a gr8 plc." It is translated like this: "My summer holidays were a complete waste of time. Before, we used to go to New York to see my brother, his girlfriend, and their three screaming kids face to face. I love New York. It's a great place."

Chat Acronyms (a.k.a. Abbreviations, Initialism, Shorthand, Text Messaging Shorthand)

A nickname for abbreviations of words used primarily in chat rooms and while texting or instant messaging, chat acronyms are popular on the Internet as a modern day type of shorthand for common phrases. This type of shorthand is also seen in e-mail messages, newsgroup postings, discussion boards, and in the media in general.

One reason acronyms and shorthand are used so widely is that it's quicker and easier to type a few letters rather than to type the full expression. They're fun (but they can also be naughty)!

The difference between acronyms and shorthand is that with acronyms, you pronounce the letters as a new word (for example, "NATO" is pronounced "na-toe"). In contrast, shorthand pronunciations are like an initialism (a set of initials) in which you say the letters one-by-one (for example, "ESP" is an initialism for "extra sensory perception."

The online practice is to refer to any online shorthand, initialisms, or abbreviations as acronyms.

Another reason to learn "netspeak"

According to Ammon Shea, consulting editor for Oxford University Press, both acronyms and initialisms are a growing part of our everyday language and “Since it is unlikely that they will go away anytime soon," you might as well learn about them.

Acronym – An abbreviation that forms a new word such as NATO (“Na-toe,” North Atlantic Treaty Organization)

Initialism – An abbreviation in which each letter is capitalized and in which each letter is pronounced, as in RIP (R-I-P, rest in peace) and TMI (T-M-I, too much information).

These examples led me to think about abbreviations I’m more familiar with. I am a member of DAR, an initialism for Daughters of the American Revolution; and I belong to an organization called kNIFVES, an acronym for Northwest Independent Film & Video Entertainment Society. Oh, and I am also a contributor to a blog called WNI, an initialism for Writing North Idaho. (If it was an acronym, it would sound like “whinny” and everyone would think we’re a group of horse lovers.)

As I continued to scroll through the thousands of acronyms, my cynicism eventually evaporated and my love of words overcame my grudging nature to learn a new language at my stage of life; and I began to find the cryptic language both interesting and fun. IMHO, the biggest advantage to using these abbreviations lies in the time-saving ease they offer when communicating - once you learn the pesky little things.

So, now that I understand cyber-speak a little, I'm considering trying to formulate my first text to my sisters - oh yeah, and adding a texting account to my cellphone.

Most Frightful Initialism

SSEWBA (Someday Soon Everything Will Be Acronyms) – which really is an initialism about writing becoming merely a long list of a abbreviations – a truly scary thought!

NIMBY, TYVM! (Not in my back yard, thank you very much!)

Hey, why don't you send me a cyber message or tell me your favorite chat acronym!!

Helpful Sources

Websites:

www.netlingo.com, www.abbreviations.com, www.fun-with-words.com/net_lingua.html, and www.urbandictionary.com.

Books To Help Understand Internet & Texting Lingo

Net Lingo The Internet Dictionary

This is NetLingo's guide to jargon, acronyms and silly smileys. Reader's Digest described it as "A comprehensive A-Z of every kind of Internet gibberish you are ever likely to encounter." It contains definitions of all sorts of compute

r and

Internet terminology, as well as hilarious acronyms, and smileys. It may open your eyes on terms you have used incorrectly.

WAN2TLK? By Gabrielle Mancier

This is a must-have for fast, smooth talkers! WAN2TLK?: Ltl bk of txt msgs is the first ever guide to text messaging, the hot new way to communicate using a pager, cell phone, email or instant messaging ("IM"ing). Thousands of abbreviations, emoticons and their meanings are shorthand for irresistible pick-up lines and clever replies, scorching romantic exchanges, and insults.

Super Smileys by Pleasant Company Publications

Smileys are great fun and kids especially love to use them to spice up their e-mails, chat room conversations, and text messages. This book presents a whole range of silly faces children can use. Smileys - both original and standard - add a touch of humor to any written communication.

Just a Few Internet Terms

AFAIK – as far as I know

AFAIR - as far as I remember

AFK – away from keyboard

AIAMU - and I'm a monkey's uncle

ATM – at the moment

b/c - because

BBL – be back later – use when offline for longer time than BRB or AFK

BFN – Bye for now

BIO - bring it on

BR – Best regards

BRB – be right back

BTW – by the way

C4N - Caio for now

CTA - call to action

CX - correction

DAMHIKT - don't as me how I know that

EM - Email

EWI - Emailing while intoxicated

FB - Facebook

FWIW – for what it’s worth

GFTD - gone for the day

HTH – hope that helps

HWGA - here we go again

IBIWISI - I'll believe it when I see it

ICYMI – in case you missed it

IDK – I don’t know

IMHO – in my humble opinion

IMO – in my opinion

IRL – in real life

J/K – just kidding

JMO - just my opinion

JSYK - just so you know

LMK – let me know

MBN – must be nice

MITIN – more information than I need

MOF – matter of fact – but be careful with any word that has an “F” in it.

MOS - mom over shoulder

MUBAR – messed up beyond all recognition

NB - Nota Bene. Make sure to read the comments, where there are many great additions.

N1 - nice one

NBIF – no basis in fact

OBX - old battle axe

Orly, O Rly, Rly ORLY – usually sarcastic “Oh, really.”

PCM - please call me

PEBCAK – problem exists between chair and keyboard

RNN - reply not necessary

RTF – read the FAQ

RTQ – read the question

TISNF - this is so not fair

TL;DR – Too long; didn’t read.

TMI – too much information

TTYL – Talk to you later

W/R/T/ – With regards to

YW – you're welcome