New York Times 50 Most Challenging Words (defined and used) | Currently Obsessed The New York Times recently published a list of 50 fancy words that most frequently stump their readership. They are able to measure this data thanks to a nifty in-page lookup mechanism, which you can try here. Try double-clicking the word “epicenter”. Since the NYT didn’t include definitions of these words, I decided to post a job to MediaPiston to produce an article defining and using each word in the list. The New York Times 50 Fancy Words (defined and used) 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. Quotations: Writers on Writing | Writer's Remorse I absolutely love it when writers write (or talk about) writing. Depending on what stage a writer is in the writing process, the writer’s quotes range from the devoted, to the confused, to the alcohol-dependent, and to the ultimately creative. In this short list of some of my favorite writer’s quotations about writing, I tried to leave out the mundane quotes and instead tried to include some of the more flavorful quotations about writing and the writing process. In most cases, the quotes seem to accurately represent the writers themselves. Stephen King: I am the literary equivalent of a Big Mac and fries.Ernest Hemingway: Write drunk, edit sober. Hunter S. Elmore Leonard: I try to leave out the parts that people skip. Isaac Asimov: If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn't brood. Moliere: A writer is congenitally unable to tell the truth and that is why we call what he writes fiction. William Faulkner: Writing is like prostitution. William S.
How Did Toast Become the Latest Artisanal Food Craze? All the guy was doing was slicing inch-thick pieces of bread, putting them in a toaster, and spreading stuff on them. But what made me stare—blinking to attention in the middle of a workday morning as I waited in line at an unfamiliar café—was the way he did it. He had the solemn intensity of a Ping-Pong player who keeps his game very close to the table: knees slightly bent, wrist flicking the butter knife back and forth, eyes suggesting a kind of flow state. The coffee shop, called the Red Door, was a spare little operation tucked into the corner of a chic industrial-style art gallery and event space (clients include Facebook, Microsoft, Evernote, Google) in downtown San Francisco. It took me just a few seconds to digest what this meant: that toast, like the cupcake and the dill pickle before it, had been elevated to the artisanal plane. A couple of weeks later I was at a place called Acre Coffee in Petaluma, a smallish town about an hour north of San Francisco on Highway 101.
Write Like a Girl (or Guy) If all the characters you create talk exactly like you do, no one but your mom is going to want to read your book—and maybe not even her if you haven't called recently. That's why you need to understand how to write dialogue that sounds authentic, even when your character differs from you when it comes to their age, region, education level, social status, background, personality, and/or gender. Each of these factors plays a role in how a person (real or fictional) speaks, and you need to consider all of them to make your characters’ dialogue sound truly legit. Let’s preface this whole shebang with a disclaimer: Like anything involving differences between sexes, this can be a bit of a touchy subject. Things have improved significantly. Handling problems When a friend wants to chat about their bad day, men are more likely to respond with a Vanilla Ice-esque “if there’s a problem, yo, I’ll solve it” approach, giving actionable advice with the goal of making the problem go away. Word choice
25 Things Every Writer Should Know An alternate title for this post might be, “Things I Think About Writing,” which is to say, these are random snidbits (snippets + tidbits) of beliefs I hold about what it takes to be a writer. I hesitate to say that any of this is exactly Zen (oh how often we as a culture misuse the term “Zen” — like, “Whoa, that tapestry is so cool, it’s really Zen“), but it certainly favors a sharper, shorter style than the blathering wordsplosions I tend to rely on in my day-to-day writing posts. Anyway. Peruse these. Absorb them into your body. Feel free to disagree with any of these; these are not immutable laws. Buckle up. 1. The Internet is 55% porn, and 45% writers. 2. A lot of writers try to skip over the basics and leap fully-formed out of their own head-wombs. 3. 4. I have been writing professionally for a lucky-despite-the-number 13 years. 5. Luck matters. 6. Nobody becomes a writer overnight. 7. Your journey to becoming a writer is all your own. 8. 9. 10. Value is a tricky word. 11. 12.
50 Most Challenging Words | Just English Back in 2010 The New York Times published a list of 50 fancy words that most frequently stump their readership. The New York Times 50 Fancy Words (defined and used) 1. Inchoate: just begun and so not fully formed or developed I am glad your inchoate proposals for integrating the company were not accepted this time, thus saving us face. 2. Anderson’s profligacy cost him his job and its better you tighten up your belt before you go the same way. 3. Mr. 4. Every major war on this planet were followed by many years of austerity. 5. The firm’s profligate spending only hastened its downfall. 6. Humpty Dumpty’s antics remain a constant source of baldenfreude for children and adults alike. 7. His ludicrous attempts at mimicry in the office only earned him the opprobrium of his colleagues. 8. The millionaire technocrat and his cronies were publicly derided for being apostates, after they were exposed of polluting the environment while purporting to have spent large sums for water conservation. 9. 10. 11.
WRITERS ON WRITING; Easy on the Adverbs, Exclamation Points and Especially Hooptedoodle 3. Never use a verb other than ''said'' to carry dialogue. The line of dialogue belongs to the character; the verb is the writer sticking his nose in. 4. . . . he admonished gravely. 5. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose. 6. This rule doesn't require an explanation. 7. Once you start spelling words in dialogue phonetically and loading the page with apostrophes, you won't be able to stop. 8. Which Steinbeck covered. 9. Unless you're Margaret Atwood and can paint scenes with language or write landscapes in the style of Jim Harrison. And finally: 10. A rule that came to mind in 1983. My most important rule is one that sums up the 10. If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it. Or, if proper usage gets in the way, it may have to go. What Steinbeck did in ''Sweet Thursday'' was title his chapters as an indication, though obscure, of what they cover. Did I read the hooptedoodle chapters? Writers on Writing www.nytimes.com/arts Continue reading the main story
50 Excellent Writing Exercises to Cultivate Your Creativity & Craft If you’re a good writer, you can succeed in any industry, no matter what kind of online degree you have. But even great writers sometimes have trouble organizing their work, polishing up the details, or even picking a cohesive idea to write about. Here are 50 excellent writing exercises to help cultivate your creativity and craft, from brainstorming to beating writer’s block and remembering your motivation. Brainstorming and Organization Try these brainstorming exercises to map out your ideas, spur on your creativity, and plan your project. Levels: Break down your topic sentence or main theme into levels to create subtopics and then single terms that you can explore individually with lists, charts or free-writing.Free-writing: This traditional form of brainstorming involves writing down anything that comes to your mind even if you don’t think it makes sense. Writer’s Block Use prompts: Print out and then cut up these prompts to store in a writer’s block box. Games Language and Grammar Style
25 Insights on Becoming a Better Writer When George Plimpton asked Ernest Hemingway what the best training for an aspiring writer would be in a 1954 interview, Hem replied, “Let’s say that he should go out and hang himself because he finds that writing well is impossibly difficult. Then he should be cut down without mercy and forced by his own self to write as well as he can for the rest of his life. At least he will have the story of the hanging to commence with.” Today, writing well is more important than ever. So what can we do to improve our writing short of hanging ourselves? 1. Don’t just plan to write—write. 2. [The] Resistance knows that the longer we noodle around “getting ready,” the more time and opportunity we’ll have to sabotage ourselves. 3. Find your best time of the day for writing and write. 4. Work on a computer that is disconnected from the internet. 5. Find a subject you care about and which you in your heart feel others should care about. 6. 7. Hone your outline and then cling to it as a lifeline. 8. 9.
How to Finish What You Start: A Five-Step Plan for Writers How to finish what you start Do you have a bunch of first chapters tucked away in a drawer – for seven different novels? Is there a folder full of abandoned short stories on your computer? Have you left a trail of abandoned blogs around the internet? Did your ebook fizzle out after a few pages? Most writers have been there … again, and again, and again. Maybe it’s the same for you. No-one’s going to buy a half-written novel. Here’s how: Step #1: Stop Starting New Projects Believe me, I know how tempting it is to grab that new idea and run with it. Do it: Decide, right now, that you won’t start anything new until you’ve finished something off. Step #2: Assess Your Current Projects Take a long, hard look at all your current works-in-progress. Is there anything that’s just not worth completing? Rather than keeping old projects hanging around, ditch any that have died on you: As with all dead things, holding onto it won’t keep it alive or change the fact that it’s useful time has come and gone.
Character and Characterisation in the Novel How to write convincing characters Characterisation - the task of building characters - isn't easy. But if you're struggling to build characters with real life and vigour, here is our very own patented technique. If you haven't yet started your book, then work on the exercise below before you start. If you have started, but think that maybe you started prematurely, then back up, do the exercise and then look back over your existing work. Oh, and don't feel patronised at being given exercises. Learning to know your characters Strong characterisation is based on knowledge. The Ultimate Character Builder Begin with a blank sheet (or screen). You should aim to cover at least five pages with this exercise. The less central a character is to your book, the less you need to know him/her. And the exercise will work. Checking your work Once you've got a fair way into your writing (say 5 to 10,000 words), then look back at it. Even genre fiction needs swiftly drawn, believable characters.
Timothy Hallinan - Writer's Resources Finishing Your Novel “A writer is someone who finishes.” -- Thomas Farber This section is for you if: You’ve started a novel but are having trouble finishing it, or You want to start a novel but aren’t sure you’ll be able to finish it. I’ve been writing novels (and teaching about writing novels) for twenty years, and one thing I’ve learned is how to finish. This section is about how to handle those things. Finishing a novel (or any kind of writing project) is a transformational experience. A long time ago, something funny happened to me. I thought I was a writer. And then my house burned down. So I made some notes on the book I remembered best, flew to Thailand, and wrote the whole thing in seven weeks. This area of the site is based on what I've learned since then.
Daily Zen List — 12 Useful Websites to Improve Your Writing by Johnny Webber 1. Words-to-Use.com – A different kind of thesaurus. 2. OneLook.com – One quick dictionary search tool. 3. 4. 5. 750words.com – Write three new pages every day. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.