Be a Wordsmith and Collect Words!
Without stopping to think, write down ten words you really like. Did you do it?
Look at the words you have written and try to work out why each one jumped in your mind. Sometimes we like a word because of a happy memory. (I once met a man from Mackinac Island who lived in Detroit most of his life but who had written down Mackinac Island as a word for a fairytale because he realized, it reminded him of when he was a boy and his grandmother would sit on the edge of his bed at night and tell him stories about Mackinac Island.)
Sometime the very sound of a word appeals to us, or it reminds us of something we like (pudding is one of my favorite words), or it could also remind us of something that is really scary. I wonder why you selected your words.
Now, try this, write down ten words that make you squirm. You should share this assignment with a friend and see what words they wrote down - but do you know why? Do you find when you are writing that you get drawn to certain words? When you read a book, do you find certain authors use certain words? I wonder why? What do you think?
Words aren’t boring. They carry our own personal thoughts and ideas. Your personal vocabulary and what those words mean to you is an individual style of you as a writer.
Without stopping to think, write down ten words you really like. Did you do it?
Look at the words you have written and try to work out why each one jumped in your mind. Sometimes we like a word because of a happy memory. (I once met a man from Mackinac Island who lived in Detroit most of his life but who had written down Mackinac Island as a word for a fairytale because he realized, it reminded him of when he was a boy and his grandmother would sit on the edge of his bed at night and tell him stories about Mackinac Island.)
Sometime the very sound of a word appeals to us, or it reminds us of something we like (pudding is one of my favorite words), or it could also remind us of something that is really scary. I wonder why you selected your words.
Now, try this, write down ten words that make you squirm. You should share this assignment with a friend and see what words they wrote down - but do you know why? Do you find when you are writing that you get drawn to certain words? When you read a book, do you find certain authors use certain words? I wonder why? What do you think?
Words aren’t boring. They carry our own personal thoughts and ideas. Your personal vocabulary and what those words mean to you is an individual style of you as a writer.
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