This word is just plain fun to say. It even sounds mysterious, really. I think it is entirely underused. I know it is in my own work. “The den was forfeited to the cabal of teenagers for their D&D afternoon.” Cabal – noun 1: the artifices and intrigues of a group of persons secretly united […]
It’s the word of the day. I had to use this one at some point! Just getting it out of the way… 🙂 “Not feeling particularly verbose, she replied with only a nod of her head.” Verbose – adjective 1): containing more words than necessary : wordy ; also : impaired by wordiness 2): given […]
I learned this week that there are different levels to the dreaded Writer’s Block. Somehow or another, after a solid six months of writing non-stop, I finally hit my burn-out stage this weekend. No, really, when I say non-stop, I mean it. I’m either asleep, at work, or writing since last September. Sometimes I’m all […]
This word is ridiculously poetic and it caught my attention. I’m sure I must have heard it before, but I didn’t remember it. According to the Google graphic on the word, it was at its heyday around the year 1900, which sounds about right to me. “Who would have expected a chance meeting in an […]
A picture says a thousand words, right? But what about music? Sometimes music has lyrics to paint pictures, other times you have notes to follow instead. What’s your musical genre? What story does your favorite song tell you? Is that why it’s your favorite? Music is important, even to writers, just because it’s another form […]
Yup, that’s right folks. Veridical. That isn’t a misspelling, despite how angrily my auto-correct is trying to fix it. Personally, I think it falls under the category of “Words Not to Use” because it will very easily throw a reader out of a sentence if they’re any good at spelling. The origins of the words […]
Vocabulary is a writer’s best friend. Mine is sadly lacking. (My grammar is worse, but my vocab list is pretty short.) So! Here’s a word to think about today, maybe use it somewhere if it’s useful. “The cadence of her footsteps on the marble flooring heralded trouble on the way.” Cadence: noun 1) a : […]
Ah, characters. The good guys. The bad guys. The goofy sidekicks. The random passerby in the background. These are the bread and butter of the storyworld, the main staple that feeds the craft. They don’t always have to be human in some medium to still get the stories across and there can be stories without […]
I found this great article, “What Makes a Really Good Story?” by Ted Albrighton, that looks at storytelling through the lens of commercial use. You don’t often think about commercials as “stories” because, in theory, you know they’re trying to sell you something, not to entertain you. Stories come with this connotation that they are […]
Coffee is a necessary evil. (And, horrifyingly enough, it is subject to the whims of the climate just like every other food supply.) Sure, there’s always tea, but it’s just not the same. Coffee and writing go hand in hand for me, no matter the time of day. Coffee is the most important thing […]
The Coffee Writer 