Words: the tools of the writer’s trade. Words, warm, wicked, or winsome, pay the bills or leave us wondering where our work fell short in an editor’s eyes. Classes on good writing tell us each word, in our fiction or nonfiction, is important. The wrong word choice can change the meaning of a sentence. The wrong sentence can change the direction of a story. The misplaced paragraph can be a decided fuhgettaboutit, sending our manuscript to the big recycle bin at the end of our road.
When your words are nothing short of inspired in your eyes, how do you know if that’s actually the truth? You get a good critique group of honest but constructive readers, a writing partner who will keep you and your words rolling, a professional editor to help plug up the holes in a much too drafty first draft. And you go to classes taught by successful authors who are expert at using their words to paint masterpieces, such as Creating Vivid Worlds by instructor Laura Resau. This essential class is presented by Northern Colorado Writers in Fort Collins, Colorado on March 9th. For more information on this class and the fabulous annual conference next month, go to www.northerncoloradowriters.com.
Now, some blast-from-the-past word fun.
Shakespeare Insult Kit (short list)
Combine one word from each of the three columns below, preface with Thou, and say it out loud with total Bard attitude.
Column 1 Column 2 Column 3
artless base-court apple-john
bawdy bat-fowling baggage
beslubbering beef-witted barnacle
bootless beetle-headed bladder
churlish boil-brained boar-pig
cockered clapper-clawed bugbear
clouted clay-brained bum-bailey
craven common-kissing canker-blossom
currish crook-pated clack-dish
dankish dismal-dreaming clotpole
dissembling dizzy-eyed coxcomb
droning doghearted codpiece
errant dread-bolted death-token
fawning earth-vexing dewberry
fobbing elf-skinned flap-dragon
froward fat-kidneyed flax-wench
Are you putting your best word forward?
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