As you might have sensed from my previous post about irony, I have a thing about language. Namely, there's what words mean, and when you use them to mean different things, it doesn't change the meaning of the word but sure says a heck of a lot about you.
Now, what's about to follow is a less obsessive version of 'gay does not mean annoying' and 'retarded does not mean inconvenient' comments more commonly point out. But this is basically the same premise.
The Other One was telling me about a friend of hers who misused the word disinterested in an essay, because she "liked the way it sounded." When The Other One pointed out she had changed the meaning of the sentence by using a different word, the girl replied that most people use the word incorrectly and would thus understand her incorrect usage. Or -- and I believe this is a direct quote -- "You're only confused, because you know what this word actually means."
It is at moments like these that I want to introduce my head the my desk and make them roommates.
The only way language works is that we all agree about what words mean. Otherwise, I'll be going to Starbucks to get a dog by which I mean iced coffee, and they'll say they don't have hammers, by which they mean pets. Words mean what they mean.
I know, I'm probably a ranting crazy about this, but this will probably never stop being something I care about. Precision in language is not a waste. It is the beauty of it.
Thoughts?
Showing posts with label words. Show all posts
Showing posts with label words. Show all posts
Monday, August 8, 2011
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Good, Better, Best, And Yet...
Much to my chagrin, I am not a top-geek. I'd guess I'm about a 6 or 7 out of 10 on the Geek Scale.
I don't have an encyclopedic knowledge of Star-Trek, Star Wars, or Rocky Horror Picture Show. I haven't read Tolstoy, and my knowledge of Asimov is strictly a persistent (and correct) belief that people shouldn't design robots that can violate the three laws. I also haven't played chess in months. So, yeah, geek fail. But, if there's one thing I can geek out about is languages. Well, ones that I know, at any rate. (Sorry, my klingon and Elvish are both abysmal.)
I'm currently studying Chinese, and Chinese has these funky things call RVC verbs. Now, I've completely forgotten what RVC stands for, but it's basically an attachment to the verb to explain the state of the verb.
Now, I get it, this probably does not sound like something fun, interesting, or worth geeking out over. But, a while ago, I learn this RVC ending '完 wan,' which means 'to finish' and another '好 hao,' which is 'to finish properly and to satisfaction.' And these endings can be attached to the verb '寫 xie' which means 'to write.' When I learned that, I stopped and geeked out in my mind for about five minutes. I got pretty happy, because I'd learned a verb construction, a word, that we don't have in English to describe a common concept in my life.
Whenever I write anything, a report, a poem, a novel, there's going to be more than one draft. I never get it just right the first time. Tragically, I am a mere mortal. But, usually, if someone asks how it's going, I'll say, "Well, I've got something I can hand in." You know, failing all else and all efforts for improvement are barred, I've still got a complete. 寫完. There's something done.
But, let's admit it, first drafts are never perfect. There's probably weak character motivations, plot holes, and scenes that don't make sense because of changes you made later in the process. And once those things are done, there's probably writing that needs to tighten, factual consistencies to check, and other minor edits. It takes many drafts before a project can be close to 'finished.'
They say DaVinci carried the Mona Lisa with him all his life, because he never considered it truly finished. He was still working on it always. That was a man who understand the difference between a potential stopping point and being properly finished.
The Thief Book is currently in draft 2.5. It's still got quite a ways to go before it'll be 'finished.' I don't know if I'll ever consider it properly finished. But, that's always something to look forward to.
Okay, geeking out over.
How do you feel about your drafts? Do you think it's ever possible for a project to be 'finished'? When do you let a project go if it isn't 'finished'?
What do you like to geek out about?
I don't have an encyclopedic knowledge of Star-Trek, Star Wars, or Rocky Horror Picture Show. I haven't read Tolstoy, and my knowledge of Asimov is strictly a persistent (and correct) belief that people shouldn't design robots that can violate the three laws. I also haven't played chess in months. So, yeah, geek fail. But, if there's one thing I can geek out about is languages. Well, ones that I know, at any rate. (Sorry, my klingon and Elvish are both abysmal.)
I'm currently studying Chinese, and Chinese has these funky things call RVC verbs. Now, I've completely forgotten what RVC stands for, but it's basically an attachment to the verb to explain the state of the verb.
Now, I get it, this probably does not sound like something fun, interesting, or worth geeking out over. But, a while ago, I learn this RVC ending '完 wan,' which means 'to finish' and another '好 hao,' which is 'to finish properly and to satisfaction.' And these endings can be attached to the verb '寫 xie' which means 'to write.' When I learned that, I stopped and geeked out in my mind for about five minutes. I got pretty happy, because I'd learned a verb construction, a word, that we don't have in English to describe a common concept in my life.
Whenever I write anything, a report, a poem, a novel, there's going to be more than one draft. I never get it just right the first time. Tragically, I am a mere mortal. But, usually, if someone asks how it's going, I'll say, "Well, I've got something I can hand in." You know, failing all else and all efforts for improvement are barred, I've still got a complete. 寫完. There's something done.
But, let's admit it, first drafts are never perfect. There's probably weak character motivations, plot holes, and scenes that don't make sense because of changes you made later in the process. And once those things are done, there's probably writing that needs to tighten, factual consistencies to check, and other minor edits. It takes many drafts before a project can be close to 'finished.'
They say DaVinci carried the Mona Lisa with him all his life, because he never considered it truly finished. He was still working on it always. That was a man who understand the difference between a potential stopping point and being properly finished.
The Thief Book is currently in draft 2.5. It's still got quite a ways to go before it'll be 'finished.' I don't know if I'll ever consider it properly finished. But, that's always something to look forward to.
Okay, geeking out over.
How do you feel about your drafts? Do you think it's ever possible for a project to be 'finished'? When do you let a project go if it isn't 'finished'?
What do you like to geek out about?
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
The F Word. Really?
Once upon a time, when my friends and I had consumed much too much soda and consequently decided we were the most amusing people in the world and understood the secrets of the universe (seriously, what do they put in coke these days?), we got around to talk around people who really bugged us. Not specific people, just certain types of people. Topping the list were people who cussed for no apparent reason. You know, those people who, when a pencil point breaks, say, "Oh $*@#."
(Second on the list were people who, whenever someone curses would say, "Oh, you said the $*$#-word." Because a) yes, indeed, they did, we all heard, why do you feel compelled to repeat it? and b) yes, you git, and so did you. But those people are mostly besides the point. Except that I knew one and he bugged me.)
Luckily, such people, who cussed all the time and for no apparent reason, were relatively rare. Otherwise, I probably would have gotten in a lot of trouble in my past for slapping people silly. Because, sometimes it's just really hard to resist.
If you're wondering what inspired this little rant, well, a while ago I saw several blog posts about the use of the f-word in YA and cursing in general. There were a lot of good thoughts brought up, such as whether or not the word is appropriate in the context, whether using the f-word might be being edgy for the sake of being edgy, and what the swearing does to the size of one's audience.
Well, I admit, some of my characters in my contemporary works curse sometimes. That's for a couple reasons:
~Teens swear these days. It's true. It occurs. So, sometimes, it just feels like the way the character might have reacted, felt, or spoken.
~Sometimes, the situation calls for it. (You don't almost run someone down with your car and so, "oh my goodness." At least, I wouldn't. If I thought I'd almost killed someone with my vehicle, I'd have to be bleeped out. Unless my mother were in the car. No, maybe even if my mother were in the car.)
~Yes, some people are just like that. They curse. Even if I'd have wanted to slap them in real life, some people are the sort of people who will curse, just as other people are the sort that won't. So we have to let them do that.
Still, my characters don't swear all the time, and they don't chuck out the f-word, and they don't curse for no apparent reason. This is also for several good reasons:
~There's a time and a place for such language, and a large part of YA events occur in places that are not the time and place. Last I checked, most teens won't use the f-word or sundry other curses in the presents of a teacher or their parents or their boss. Situations may vary based on relationships involved, but a lot of people have some list of places where they can't/won't swear. Since those places probably include schools, houses, and work, that's a real limit to where a character in a YA can curse.
~It's annoying. This is probably a belief more related to my views, but I can't stand people whose vocabulary would entirely need to be bleeped out on the radio. I just want to slap them upside the head with my thesaurus and say, "Don't you know any other words?" Seriously, it gets old.
~Not everyone cusses. Some people don't. So, one can't just have every character swearing everything six ways to Sunday. It won't make sense from all of the characters. Also, it could alienate or discomfort readers who don't like a lot of cursing, or, in YA and MG, readers whose parents don't like a lot of cursing.
How do you feel about cursing in your writing? In other people's writing? In real life?
(Second on the list were people who, whenever someone curses would say, "Oh, you said the $*$#-word." Because a) yes, indeed, they did, we all heard, why do you feel compelled to repeat it? and b) yes, you git, and so did you. But those people are mostly besides the point. Except that I knew one and he bugged me.)
Luckily, such people, who cussed all the time and for no apparent reason, were relatively rare. Otherwise, I probably would have gotten in a lot of trouble in my past for slapping people silly. Because, sometimes it's just really hard to resist.
If you're wondering what inspired this little rant, well, a while ago I saw several blog posts about the use of the f-word in YA and cursing in general. There were a lot of good thoughts brought up, such as whether or not the word is appropriate in the context, whether using the f-word might be being edgy for the sake of being edgy, and what the swearing does to the size of one's audience.
Well, I admit, some of my characters in my contemporary works curse sometimes. That's for a couple reasons:
~Teens swear these days. It's true. It occurs. So, sometimes, it just feels like the way the character might have reacted, felt, or spoken.
~Sometimes, the situation calls for it. (You don't almost run someone down with your car and so, "oh my goodness." At least, I wouldn't. If I thought I'd almost killed someone with my vehicle, I'd have to be bleeped out. Unless my mother were in the car. No, maybe even if my mother were in the car.)
~Yes, some people are just like that. They curse. Even if I'd have wanted to slap them in real life, some people are the sort of people who will curse, just as other people are the sort that won't. So we have to let them do that.
Still, my characters don't swear all the time, and they don't chuck out the f-word, and they don't curse for no apparent reason. This is also for several good reasons:
~There's a time and a place for such language, and a large part of YA events occur in places that are not the time and place. Last I checked, most teens won't use the f-word or sundry other curses in the presents of a teacher or their parents or their boss. Situations may vary based on relationships involved, but a lot of people have some list of places where they can't/won't swear. Since those places probably include schools, houses, and work, that's a real limit to where a character in a YA can curse.
~It's annoying. This is probably a belief more related to my views, but I can't stand people whose vocabulary would entirely need to be bleeped out on the radio. I just want to slap them upside the head with my thesaurus and say, "Don't you know any other words?" Seriously, it gets old.
~Not everyone cusses. Some people don't. So, one can't just have every character swearing everything six ways to Sunday. It won't make sense from all of the characters. Also, it could alienate or discomfort readers who don't like a lot of cursing, or, in YA and MG, readers whose parents don't like a lot of cursing.
How do you feel about cursing in your writing? In other people's writing? In real life?
Friday, March 26, 2010
What Banagrams Can Teach Us About Writing
Okay, we've heard me say before that I like Bananagrams. Turns out, I wasn't kidding. And, to prove my love, as all great knights and story heroes must, I'm writing a blog post about what that game can teach us about writing. (Okay, so, it's not as heroic as slaying a dragon, or even a gila monster, but it's what I've got.)
Get something big up front. That way you've got something to build on.
Imagine trying to build an entire board of words from Cat. It's hard. You've got limited things to build from and not a wide variety of letters to use in your building words. Not ideal. A similar principle applies to ideas. While I'd never claim a full-fledged idea cannot spring from a single line of dialogue or the flicker of an imagine in ones mind, I wouldn't advise a person with only one line of dialogue to sit down and start banging away on the keyboard. They won't know what to do once they've run out of initial steam, and they'll probably give up. The idea should be kicked around and thought about until it's more fleshed out, bigger. Then, it will be something you can build on.
Build on what you've got. Don't scrap the entire board just to place one tricky letter.
When you're staring at a Q and thinking, 'Aaahh! I have no vowels free and nowhere to put this, I don't know what to do!' you might be struck with a sudden urge to take a lot of things apart to find a place for it. 'I can put the other stuff together again in a different way. It'll totally work.' It can work. But it's also going to take a lot of time and effort, and it might not even work. Alternatively, when in a whole, the appropriate response is not to dig to China. It's to use the shovel to put footholds in the wall. It's easier to make smaller changes and solve one problem then rebuild the entire thing and possibly make more. Simpler solutions are often available if we look, and they're good options.
Resist the urge to dump. It often makes more problems than it fixes.
Some friends of mine, whenever they hit a rough letter, dump it. That means they put it back in the Pile From Whence Words Come, and draw three more letters. This can be helpful when faced with a really tricky letter, like a z or an x. But for an ordinary letter, like a r, this often creates more problems than the one it solves. It adds to the list of things you have to deal with, and like destroying the whole board to manage a hinky letter, you run the risk of taking on a lot of nonsense you don't know what to do with. In writing, it you get lost in a scene, the solution is not to spin all sorts of meaningless stuff you'll have to cut later. If you've got a plot hole, don't pull nonsense from nowhere to fix it. Go with what you've already built in the story. There's probably an answer there. Think. Focus. Then type. This isn't a timed event. It doesn't have to all happen this instant.
Don't be afraid to take apart what you've already made.
(This is the part where I end with the one that's not like the others.) Okay, from what I've already said about not destroying everything, I don't mean that what you've already done is set in stone. It's not. Shuffling can occur. Editing will occur. Things can change. And they can certainly change to accommodate an issue you've only just noticed. I just meant you don't always have to change everything. If you see a small change that can be made to one scene (a letter you can pull from a long word without creating a problem over there) and use that to solve you problem that you're having now (and use it to create a great word that gets rid of your icky letter), you shouldn't be afraid to go for it. Place things now, solve the problems now, and don't think you can't possibly change them later to manage the problems as you go.
Summation: Nothing's set in stone. You've probably got lot's of great foundation already laid. Don't scrap the entire thing to solve one problem in one part. Just use what you've got to make your fix. (There's probably an architecture metaphor to be had here, but that's for another day.)
Get something big up front. That way you've got something to build on.
Imagine trying to build an entire board of words from Cat. It's hard. You've got limited things to build from and not a wide variety of letters to use in your building words. Not ideal. A similar principle applies to ideas. While I'd never claim a full-fledged idea cannot spring from a single line of dialogue or the flicker of an imagine in ones mind, I wouldn't advise a person with only one line of dialogue to sit down and start banging away on the keyboard. They won't know what to do once they've run out of initial steam, and they'll probably give up. The idea should be kicked around and thought about until it's more fleshed out, bigger. Then, it will be something you can build on.
Build on what you've got. Don't scrap the entire board just to place one tricky letter.
When you're staring at a Q and thinking, 'Aaahh! I have no vowels free and nowhere to put this, I don't know what to do!' you might be struck with a sudden urge to take a lot of things apart to find a place for it. 'I can put the other stuff together again in a different way. It'll totally work.' It can work. But it's also going to take a lot of time and effort, and it might not even work. Alternatively, when in a whole, the appropriate response is not to dig to China. It's to use the shovel to put footholds in the wall. It's easier to make smaller changes and solve one problem then rebuild the entire thing and possibly make more. Simpler solutions are often available if we look, and they're good options.
Resist the urge to dump. It often makes more problems than it fixes.
Some friends of mine, whenever they hit a rough letter, dump it. That means they put it back in the Pile From Whence Words Come, and draw three more letters. This can be helpful when faced with a really tricky letter, like a z or an x. But for an ordinary letter, like a r, this often creates more problems than the one it solves. It adds to the list of things you have to deal with, and like destroying the whole board to manage a hinky letter, you run the risk of taking on a lot of nonsense you don't know what to do with. In writing, it you get lost in a scene, the solution is not to spin all sorts of meaningless stuff you'll have to cut later. If you've got a plot hole, don't pull nonsense from nowhere to fix it. Go with what you've already built in the story. There's probably an answer there. Think. Focus. Then type. This isn't a timed event. It doesn't have to all happen this instant.
Don't be afraid to take apart what you've already made.
(This is the part where I end with the one that's not like the others.) Okay, from what I've already said about not destroying everything, I don't mean that what you've already done is set in stone. It's not. Shuffling can occur. Editing will occur. Things can change. And they can certainly change to accommodate an issue you've only just noticed. I just meant you don't always have to change everything. If you see a small change that can be made to one scene (a letter you can pull from a long word without creating a problem over there) and use that to solve you problem that you're having now (and use it to create a great word that gets rid of your icky letter), you shouldn't be afraid to go for it. Place things now, solve the problems now, and don't think you can't possibly change them later to manage the problems as you go.
Summation: Nothing's set in stone. You've probably got lot's of great foundation already laid. Don't scrap the entire thing to solve one problem in one part. Just use what you've got to make your fix. (There's probably an architecture metaphor to be had here, but that's for another day.)
Monday, February 1, 2010
Scrabble is the New Heroin
I come from a family of confirmed logophiles. We play Scrabble at family reunions and do an annual puzzle based of the meanings of obscure words. (Did you know that embolalia is the use of... um... virtually meaningless filler words, phrases, or... er... stammerings (or so-called hesitation-forms) in speech, whether as... uh... unconscious utterings while arranging one's thoughts or as... like... a vacuous, inexpressive... you know... mannerism.) This manifested itself in the expected form: Books everywhere.
But, it also took some rather interesting forms. My sister, The Other One, took to playing Scrabble online when none of us could play with her as much as she'd like. That turned into just about an addiction, which gave rise to the expression in my family: "Scrabble is the new heroin." Yeah, she played Scrabble a lot.
I'm never became nearly as addicted to Scrabble as The Other One, but if you ever want to develop Super Anagram powers, I suggest hanging out with a Scrabble junkie.
But, this week, a friend introduced me to the game Bananagrams. It's like Scrabble, only without the board, and your goal is to use all the tiles before anyone else. It's an awesome game, and possibly my new ... well, I'm going to make the drug comparison, but it's actually that addictive.
And, as it turns out, I know some serious weird words. At least, I've been told their weird. (I, for the record, maintain that ell is a perfectly reasonable word.) Well, long live the logophiles. :D
What forms, other than a love of writing, has your logophilia taken? Any Scrabble junkies present?
But, it also took some rather interesting forms. My sister, The Other One, took to playing Scrabble online when none of us could play with her as much as she'd like. That turned into just about an addiction, which gave rise to the expression in my family: "Scrabble is the new heroin." Yeah, she played Scrabble a lot.
I'm never became nearly as addicted to Scrabble as The Other One, but if you ever want to develop Super Anagram powers, I suggest hanging out with a Scrabble junkie.
But, this week, a friend introduced me to the game Bananagrams. It's like Scrabble, only without the board, and your goal is to use all the tiles before anyone else. It's an awesome game, and possibly my new ... well, I'm going to make the drug comparison, but it's actually that addictive.
And, as it turns out, I know some serious weird words. At least, I've been told their weird. (I, for the record, maintain that ell is a perfectly reasonable word.) Well, long live the logophiles. :D
What forms, other than a love of writing, has your logophilia taken? Any Scrabble junkies present?
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Can I Get a Rating Over Here?
One thing I'm noticing as I work on Miss Snitch is that there's cussing in this book. This is a change for me. A lot of my previous stuff was swear-free, or at least, our-kind-of-swearing-free. I haven't changed the age group, just the setting. Though my other stuff has been YA as well, this is contemporary .
Now, at least 98% of the teens I know cuss a bit. Maybe they don't all do it loads -- though I know people who have used a cuss word in every verb tense you can name -- but teens pretty much all curse a little bit. So it makes sense to me that there'd be some swearing in the book. There's just more than I expected.
Oddly enough, the character doing the most of it is my MC. Most of my major characters in previous work didn't swear, usually because it wasn't appropriate. But teen girls these days swear sometimes, in their heads, even if not aloud. Maybe that's why I've so much cursing now, so much internal time. It's easier to cuss loads in your head, because people don't rag on that.
I'm careful with it. I try not to do any of it gratuitously, and for the most part it's all pretty moderate. There's no use of the dreaded f-word, but a certain word beginning with B makes numerous appearances in most of its parts of speech forms (noun, verbs, some adjective, though not adverbially, thankfully).
If it came down to it, I'm probably circling a PG-13 rating, though I couldn't find any more specific guidance on the interweb, dash it all. All I know is that I still have both my f-words left before I have to be an R.
Now I'm beginning to worry that it's just a bit too much. I know I curse too much, less than some but certainly more than I'd like to. And, I think, maybe it's that the swearing has become enough of my vocabulary so that it just doesn't sound weird to me.
How do you feel about swearing in books? How much is too much?
Now, at least 98% of the teens I know cuss a bit. Maybe they don't all do it loads -- though I know people who have used a cuss word in every verb tense you can name -- but teens pretty much all curse a little bit. So it makes sense to me that there'd be some swearing in the book. There's just more than I expected.
Oddly enough, the character doing the most of it is my MC. Most of my major characters in previous work didn't swear, usually because it wasn't appropriate. But teen girls these days swear sometimes, in their heads, even if not aloud. Maybe that's why I've so much cursing now, so much internal time. It's easier to cuss loads in your head, because people don't rag on that.
I'm careful with it. I try not to do any of it gratuitously, and for the most part it's all pretty moderate. There's no use of the dreaded f-word, but a certain word beginning with B makes numerous appearances in most of its parts of speech forms (noun, verbs, some adjective, though not adverbially, thankfully).
If it came down to it, I'm probably circling a PG-13 rating, though I couldn't find any more specific guidance on the interweb, dash it all. All I know is that I still have both my f-words left before I have to be an R.
Now I'm beginning to worry that it's just a bit too much. I know I curse too much, less than some but certainly more than I'd like to. And, I think, maybe it's that the swearing has become enough of my vocabulary so that it just doesn't sound weird to me.
How do you feel about swearing in books? How much is too much?
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Working Blue
Okay, if you're like basically everyone I've met who's over the age of 15, you probably use more swear words that you'd like to. I know I do. And, possibly more particular to me, I blaspheme. A lot. So, what's to be done about characters?
A lot of the time, my protagonists talk the way I do. And their friends will probably talk the way my friends and I talk, as well. The down side to that? Generally, my characters aren't living in 21st century America. Heck, often enough, they're not on this planet. So, I guess the inevitable question is, if they don't live like us, can they swear like us?
Personally, I tend to create my own cuss words. My new MS is heavy on oaths like "by the shining moon" or "falling stars" because of the culture of the characters. Those are my replacements for "oh, for the love of God" and "Jesus Christ" and the twenty-something other blasphemies and curses that might have come to my everyday lips.
Anyone else have this problem? How much cursing is really acceptable in a book? How much, as an author, can a person create for a text?
A lot of the time, my protagonists talk the way I do. And their friends will probably talk the way my friends and I talk, as well. The down side to that? Generally, my characters aren't living in 21st century America. Heck, often enough, they're not on this planet. So, I guess the inevitable question is, if they don't live like us, can they swear like us?
Personally, I tend to create my own cuss words. My new MS is heavy on oaths like "by the shining moon" or "falling stars" because of the culture of the characters. Those are my replacements for "oh, for the love of God" and "Jesus Christ" and the twenty-something other blasphemies and curses that might have come to my everyday lips.
Anyone else have this problem? How much cursing is really acceptable in a book? How much, as an author, can a person create for a text?
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Words
Words are fun, aren't they? I just really like words: I like the way they sound; I like the way they look; I like the way they feel in my mouth.
Some words are more fun than others.
- omphaloskepsis: navel contemplation for the purpose of diving the future.
Okay, this word is just too awesome for, well, words. And, frankly, there just aren't enough chances to use it.
-exsanguinate: to render bloodless
It just rolls off the tongue. At least, in my opinion.
-napiform: turnip shaped.
This is another word that we don't get to say enough. Really, it's just that fun. It goes up there with poriform (pear-shaped).
-Supercilious: haughty, arrogant
Rolls off the tongue. At least in this case there's hope of using it in a conversation.
Anyone else have a favorite word? Please, share. Today, for me, is Fun Words Day.
Some words are more fun than others.
- omphaloskepsis: navel contemplation for the purpose of diving the future.
Okay, this word is just too awesome for, well, words. And, frankly, there just aren't enough chances to use it.
-exsanguinate: to render bloodless
It just rolls off the tongue. At least, in my opinion.
-napiform: turnip shaped.
This is another word that we don't get to say enough. Really, it's just that fun. It goes up there with poriform (pear-shaped).
-Supercilious: haughty, arrogant
Rolls off the tongue. At least in this case there's hope of using it in a conversation.
Anyone else have a favorite word? Please, share. Today, for me, is Fun Words Day.
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