Skip to main content

Thesaurus, I love thee!

The first draft of my work in progress is done and now I am onto the deep edit. I got what I wanted to say down and now I need to pretty it up, so to speak. This part of my writing process is grueling. This is when I get down in the dirt and wrestle with the words. This is when I exploit my thesaurus app. I use it so much I feel like I should contribute to their site!
I circle all the times I use the same word in a chapter and then make lists of synonyms to see which word works better with which phrase. It is not a task for the faint-hearted. There are times when I find a word so perfectly suited for the sentence that I want to throw my fist in the air. There are other times when the perfect word is just out of reach.
Imagining doing this without a thesaurus makes my brain hurt so this is a heartfelt tribute to the genius who decided that a book of synonyms was just what the world needed. Thank you!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Bookclubs

I'm back from traveling to Europe and about to leave town again so I thought it was time to add a post to my blog. Since the release of my book I have been invited to share my thoughts at three book clubs with another planned for after Christmas and it is so much fun! I am loving the interaction with people who have read my book. We have had some great discussions about prejudices, adoption, nasty relatives and the writing process. In life, when we step out of our comfort zone and try new things it can go one of two ways; success or failure. But for me there has been additional path: it has been an unexpected delight to experience positive, unintended consequences such as meeting my readers. Little did I think when I was tapping away on my computer two years ago that the publication of my book would lead me to meet so many new friends. Comforts zones are safe places, which is why we like them, and not every new venture will end in success or great unintended consequences, but s

Judging a Book by its Cover

     Okay, confession time. How many of you choose a book just because you like the cover? Well, apparently a vast majority! A book's cover is the author's sales pitch to the reader. It must grab the potential buyer's attention and outshine the millions of other covers out there. No pressure!      I am also learning that there are many, subtle indicators, to readers of particular genres, about what they can expect to find inside a book. If your cover promises something that the reader does not actually find within its pages, you can lose a reader. The opposite is true too. If your cover does not suggest 'PG 13' rated content within, but the book contains it, you can offend your reader. Wow, it's a minefield!      Research of other covers in your particular genre is a very important place to begin.      I self-published my first book and created the cover myself. I was new to the industry and had no training. That was probably not a good idea and when I ever g

Trying a New Genre

Though I write Regency Romance (and children's historical fiction), my very favorite genre to read is the "Whodunnit", the classic murder mysteries of Agatha Christie fame. It was her books, in fact, that made me into a reader as a child. These mild mysteries, that have had a following since Ms. Christie's days, seem to have enjoyed a resurgence in popularity of late under the genre name of Cozy Mysteries. The thought came to me a few months ago, "Since you like them so much you should try writing one!" So I am. I have created a dynamic duo, to borrow a phrase, who snoop out clues and help the local Bobbies. They are rich, beautiful and from the upper classes - because for some reason that's often how we like our heroines to be. This book will not reflect the politically correct culture of our day, but will try to capture the essence of life in the 1920's, while solving a crime. I think it will be a lot of fun!