bellibone, n. : “A woman excelling both in beauty and goodness” (Webster). (Pronounced bell’-i-bone, with the accent on bell, and bone pronounced as it’s spelled. Fun fact—with a British accent, it sounds like belly-bone.) When I first saw this word, a lovely young lady certainly did not come to mind. The word itself is not […]
Write Like Lightning
The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter–it’s the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning. ~ Mark Twain This appropriate quote, also by Mr. Clemens, can be found at twainquotes.com.
Mazarine
mazarine, n. : “A deep blue color” (Pronounced like Nazarene or tangerine with the accent on the first syllable or the third, whichever you prefer [maz’a-reen or maz-a-reen’]) (Thanks again, Noah Webster!) There are at least two reasons I picked this word. The first is that since you don’t hear it every day, you will sound […]
Making Your Writing Pop – Avoiding Bland Adjectives
Susie was hungry. She hadn’t eaten since the night before. The pizza looked good sitting on the table in front of her. She took a piece and placed it in her mouth. As she bit into it, she smiled. It was as good as it looked. Besides the word pizza, there really isn’t anything in […]
Don’t write it once
You need not expect to get your book right the first time. Go to work and revamp or rewrite it. God only exhibits his thunder and lightning at intervals, and so they always command attention. These are God’s adjectives. You thunder and lightning too much; the reader ceases to get under the bed, by and […]
Accoy ~ First Weekly Word!
Our first weekly word is accoy. But before I talk about it, I want to mention a really great book—Noah Webster’s 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language. It is replete with colorful, vivid, old-fashioned words like accoy that you have probably never heard of (Microsoft Word and I hadn’t anyway—squiggly red lines galore!). I […]
