In A Word….
Sunny Frazier has had a long-standing love affair with words and anyone who has ever read her work knows it even if they don’t actually think about it. She has been publishing both fiction and nonfiction since 1972. She is a Navy veteran, earned a BA in Journalism, and wrote for a newspaper before joining the Fresno County Sheriff’s Department for a 17 year career in law enforcement.
Sunny‘s short mystery fiction has won over 30 awards and trophies, as well as publication in mystery magazines and law enforcement magazines. Her first novel in the Christy Bristol Astrology Mysteries, Fools Rush In, received the Best Novel Award from Public Safety Writers Association.
True story.
I was trying to help a friend who was writing her first novel, a Western. I looked over what she had written and it was excruciatingly boring. I said, “Westerns have some of the most colorful language of all the genres. Why aren’t you using more interesting words in your writing?”
Her reply stunned me: “I don’t know that many words.”
Why in the world does this person want to be a writer? Writers work with nothing but words! It’s our medium, our clay, our bricks to build a better story. We are paid to know words.
Next I wondered: why doesn’t this person buy a thesaurus? Don’t they come in the computer program? I don’t use one, but from what I hear they contain lots of useful words for people who lack imagination or suffer memory loss. She can continue to write boring prose and then find substitutes for her limited vocabulary.
What happened to those “Word of a Day” calendars? Don’t they make them anymore? How about taking a look at the dictionary once in awhile? Lots of words are found between those covers. Being a reader should have improved her vocabulary through osmosis. How can you absorb a plot but not notice the words? Wasn’t she paying attention?
I’ll admit, I have a love affair with words. I like how they look on a page. I like to fit them together so they not only say what I intended but in a way that delights my eyes and mental ear. I like to use words we all know but don’t take off the shelf and dust off very often. I’m a little too fond of alliteration, but that’s my weakness.
I don’t like words that are just show-offs. I get bored with novels filled with an intricate onslaught of language. It makes my brain hurt. Reading should enlighten not hurt. When an author gets esoteric, it’s like an old, fat man behind the wheel of a Corvette: we all know the car is making up for shortcomings, but the driver still thinks everyone is impressed. We’re not.
When I can’t find the word I want, I have no problem making one up that suits me. My favorite invention is “He tumbleweeded into town.” If you’ve ever seen a tumbleweed make its way down an empty street with a haphazard wind pushing it along, you know the image I’m going for.
I like the phrase I just wrote: “haphazard wind.” I nearly said “wind haphazardly pushing” but you would have expected that, right? With just a slight twist, the same words sound more interesting. I also like that I used the words “esoteric” and “osmosis.” I had fun writing them even though I had to look them up in the dictionary to make sure they were in context. Weren’t they fun to read? Don’t they look terrific on paper? Maybe it’s because they start with vowels. Vowels make me happy.
I realize, as I’m writing my 3rd book, that I actually get a buzz when the words start flowing in interesting ways. My mind is a playground with letters coming together to create images and emotions. My hands move over the computer keyboard and words appear on the page like magic. It IS magic.
This magic has powers stronger than Harry Potter or whoever wields the bigger wand (I don’t read the Potter books. Sorry). I can take a reader anywhere of my choosing as long as I can retain their interest. I can relay my deepest thoughts, my strongest beliefs, my prejudices (I don’t care for rich people) to strangers holding my book in their hands. I can excite their senses and awaken their imaginations with the right metaphors and similes. I can pull them in on sly jokes embedded in my prose (I like the word embedded). I can elude readers by slipping real details of my life into stories and make it a challenge for them to separate fact from fiction.
I just got an e-mail from a struggling author who wrote, “I’m working on my word count.” My message to her? “It’s not about the word count, it’s about using words that count.”
I think I’ve said my piece. Did you get the word?
August 9, 2011
Posted in: Guest Blogs
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35 Responses
Sunny, I love “tumbleweeded” and your “haphazard wind.” Wish I had thought of them first.
I’m embarrassed to admit that my editor, speaking of one of my first manuscripts (sent to her in a novice’s rush of overly-optimistic enthusiasm) some years ago wrote, “With so many vital words available, couldn’t you consider using a few of them?” <>
After ten published books, I love getting to the place where I can break the rules. Write sentence fragments. Toy with……elipses. Shamble up some eggs. I’ve been fighting against grammar lessons all of my life.
I am infatuated with words, the way we use them, the way they sound, the way they feel in my mouth when I speak them, I adore words!
Tumbleweeded? That’s a great word. My favorite is an oldie but a goodie, “Erstwhile”. there are so many things in life that once were but they sound so much better as erstwhile.
Mine is Sunflowered, sorry you’ll have to read my book to get it. LOL
I read an article recently that recommended authors eschew making up words. (Those words that begin with a vowel are lovely aren’t they?) I find that a few unique verbs interspersed here and there creates a more exhilarating read. Sunny, I commend you for some of your fresh and vivid writing.
OF course every now and then my brain freezes shut. Then I open up my favorite resource, a great book called WORD MENU.
Style is what makes writing a joy ride, instead of a job. It’s knowing that you, and only you, have chosen the right dazzling words and arranged them in the right intriguing order, to send those words souring out to the reader. Sunny, if your friend doesn’t get off on this magic carpet ride, then maybe she should take up macrame or golf. Writing is for unabashed wordoholics.
Awesome, Sunny! I have a tendency to live, and write, by the philosophy “Words have the power to change the world, so use them wisely.” It’s not fancy, but it helps me focus my intention and choose words to convey my message in an interesting way.
BTW, I don’t read the Potter books either. Glad to know I’m not the only one.
I think the best words are not the ones that you find but the ones that find you–like tumbleweeded.
Sunny,
YEP.
You should read Harry Potter, you have more in common with the author than you might expect. There are more made-up words in Harry Potter than you can imagine and they all fit.
Marilyn
What an interesting blog! Yep, I love tumbleweeded and can just see all kinds of things tumbleweeding down the road. Those words starting with vowels are great, too!
Sorry Sunny.
I couldn’t resist.
Yep is the quintessential utterance of every laconic hero ever envisioned by a western writer such as I.
I wonder how many times it actually shows up in my Oak Tree Press novel, Blessings, Bullets and Bad Bad Men.
How can one be a writer and not love words? Though I may never use it, I love going to the dictionary in search of meaning(s) when I stumble upon a new word.
Your last paragraph says it all–’It’s not about the word count, it’s about using words that count.’
Have you ever watched The Three Amigos starring Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Chevy Chase? The bandit leader uses the word ‘plethora’. He is hilarous but dangerous and his sidekick knows this. He has always to find the fine line between pleasing/displeasing El Guapo. If you get a chance, watch it. Words create tone that is often ‘unheard’ but recognizable whether written or oral.
My vocabulary is rather extensive due to my reading habits from a young age. Two years ago, while in the office at the school I worked at, I was having a dialogue with a colleague. As I was exiting, she grunted, “Why do I need a dictionary wheneve I talk to you?” She is a teacher!
Whoops! whenever
Your love of words and writing is contagious. Weaving thoughts, phrases and storylines together just can’t be beat. For some unknown reason I fought against Harry Potter and then found out there was so much to enjoy-like most things in my life.
I try, but I tow the line of mediocrity. At least I feel like that a lot… I honestly have no idea how I’m doing. I know a lot of old words, I remember writing the other day and thinking ‘who uses that word anynmore? WTH am I doing?’
When I was a very little boy, my parents gave me a magnetic blackboard with the letters of the alphabet as magnets. Each letter had a different color. A was red, B was yellow, C was blue, D was green, and so on. To this day, I still remember those colors and they still shade words for me in unexpected ways. I love everything about words you all have so eloquently mentioned, but most of all I love that when I read and write I see rainbows.
My reply is a tad left-handed, but I write a series with a Humphrey Bogart look-alike. Consequently, I use a lot of 1940s slang. Because so many readers wouldn’t know what the slang terms mean, I either have to create dialoge or situations that help define the words and phrases without sounding like a slang dictionary. Now that’s fun with words.
This is like poetry in action, I love new words and tumbleweeded is great, I can see the blistering filthy little thing just rolling and growing and gathering all kind of stuff as it wields it way through town. I love playing on words (makes sense to me) and making use of fresh phrases. Words are power, and I like the power of being able to create a phrase that stimulate the (as Poirot) little grey cells.
Sunny, I agree wholeheartedly with making up words. Sometimes nothing else will do, and tumbleweeded is a perfect example.
One of my mystery series is set in southern rural Florida, so I listen carefully to how the natives speak there in order to pick up the appropriate language and tone for my characters. I presently live in upstate New York and winter in Florida. I’ve learned that those of us who travel south in the winter are not called snowbirds in my area of Florida. No, we are “winter visitors”.
Can’t do without words. Nothing takes away my cool like someone who tries to take away my words.
Some days I feel like I’m tumbleweeded with life in general. I use writing as an escape, so if I can find the right words, I’m transported to out of this world to a more exciting world. Loved the blog.
Glad to see there’s another fan of alliteration. I love using it, but not too often so it doesn’t wear thin. All the book titles in my series have alliteration in them.
My background is theater, so when I write fiction I “hear” the dialogue in my head. I recommend writers read their dialogue aloud and revise until the words sound authentic and conversational.
Sally Carpenter
“The Baffled Beatlemaniac Caper”
When I write and I can see an image I love it. When I “view” word pictures, I know I have succeeded. A friend helped me with the following phase when I was writing about moving my mom in with me, ” Packing a life in a bag taxes the back; packing a grieving spirit taxes everything and everyone.” I still love reading it becuase it says what we were feeling in a way that I think places my reader there with us. How can you not love, love, LOVE words and do what we do? Yeah, a love affair that I hope never ends.
Have to agree with Marilyn. You should read at least the first Harry Potter book. JKKR pays careful attention to words, and certainly makes up a lot of words. Loved this blog and will re-read it periodically. My word for today is: serendipity.
My favorite part about writing is deciding which words each character will use. Each character is so different, where one character may say ‘I’m going to shoot you,’ another would say, ‘I’m gonna bust a cap in ya.’
One thing I often do is look up words I have used in my books and think I know the definition of, just to be sure. Sometimes I find I overestimated my knowledge and have to change words.
Holli
Sunny, you always have a way with words
Great post. Hope the third book tumbleweeds into bookstores soon. But knowing how Sunny and Christie operate, it will probably whirlwind in.
Sunny, you sure can write a blog post. When I’m writing I get a charge out of having my characters riff, and then I choose what works. Usually I like to take a word or phrase that has been overused and breathe new life into it. I had one character comment on his aging by saying that his birthday suit could use a little ironing. I guess I share your rich people prejudice. In one novel I have a bitter anti-wealthy character talking about the affluent needing a little “family downsizing,” and asking someone why he “soils” himself associating with the “filthy rich.”
I subscribed to a word-a-day site and the words I receive are great. I just completed transfering them to a Word document so I can tap into them when writing. If you want to read a series where you’ll keep a dictinoary handy, try Reginald Hill. He likes big intricate words.
Why so positive? What is needed here is a bit of negativity to calm down all this heated blood. Some words deserve our loathing and we should feel free to let the loath out. Nowadays. I hate this word. If I could hunt down the person who invented ‘Nowadays’ I would spend five minutes gleefully slapping them with a glove. ‘Green’, I think I hate this word because when I was younger I liked it, and it is the best color there is, and now I can’t buy a taco at Taco Bell without being told it is a “GREEN TACO” hell bent on saving mother earth. Tacos cannot be green!!! Except if they put that green sauce on them and those things they call vegetables. . .but who eats those anyway?
Sunny: Always a treat to read about your words – so valuable. I have an illiteration obsession. I have Mitch Malone Mysteries. I have Mitch Malone Mondays and am thinking about focusing on things in the great lakes states by having Mitch Malone on Michigan. Too many Ms?
Wendy
Wendy, you can never have too many “M’s.”
I just heard a phrase I liked: “My mind was blackberry picking.” Should I steal it?
Amen, Sister Sunny! I just got “the Word” from you loud and clear. I loved your allusion to a fat old guy in a Corvette. Brilliant!
We have someone in our writing group, God love her, who claims she can’t read because she “doesn’t have the time”. This is someone who has churned out three books on her own time. I admire her. She is my hero for her persistence, determination and energy (she works full time and is a single mom). She has something to say and she wants it to be witty and fun for the reader. Now ask me if I can stand to wade through most of her work?
Her work is dull, her syntax is often skewed and words are chosen for how they sound, not what they mean. The result is nonsensical. When the group offers suggestions, she looks at us as though we were morons. I”m quite convinced she seldom or never revises her work, according to our suggestions. Then she wonders why she gets rejection after rejection.
I love what you said about the buzz of words that flow and that are combined in magical, musical ways. I believe this is fmy writing fellow’s goal, but she needs to read more, more, more and then let her mind go word and sentence picking.
Stole that. Sorta.
And start liking rich people. You’re likely to be one, soon.
Marta Chausée, author
Resort to Murder series
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