Word Impact - and Contest

Words are important. As an adversary of mine once noted, “Words mean things.” Unfortunately, the necessity of a reasonable vocabulary didn't quite register with me right out of high school. My utterances were blue-collar speak, mimicking the likes of Vinnie Barbarino (Welcome Back Kotter –“What? Wier?”), and Joey Tribbiani (Friends – “How you dooin’?”).

Yep. I sounded just like that, until I hit my early-twenties where I was introduced to another class of people. Executives. I had a blue collar job in a white collar environment. I wore a shirt and tie under a suit or jacket, and had face-to face contact with my betters on a daily bases. I began to realize how my intercourse (minds out of the gutter, please) differed from the people who had a direct bearing on my paycheck. I emulated their speech; a word here, a pronunciation there, and within a couple years I overcame my blue-collar dialect and no longer sounded like a character in The Lords of Flatbush, unless I wanted to revisit it and called it back. I regarded it as an accent, something I could turn on and off; like an actor or a speech coach. (Please note: My reference to a movie and two TV shows based in New York, in no way suggests that I think New Yorkers have a funny way of speaking. My wife is from New York. Although I must admit, I take great enjoyment from making fun of her accent. It usually starts whenever she says the word “ball.” It comes out something like “bawl,” but with a long 'O' sound, and to be honest, I’m not sure I can even spell it phonetically. And after she reads this, I’m sure to have a date with the couch tonight.)  

But I digress.

When I started writing, my new vocabulary became more than a way of just communicating with others on a verbal level. It became a tool, much like the computer I use to cobble words into a story. Now I've reached yet another plateau in the vein of vocabulary; the difference that using the right word can make. And therein, lay an example.

By the “right” word, do I mean the word opposite of left? Or do I mean the correct word? Or the proper word? The exact word that will impart the emotion or mood or intent, of the action or scene, or character’s attitude?

Wow! So much power!

This topic found its way to me last night while I was brain-working though a scene in the novel I’m currently hammering out. It involves, a smile; a simple, non-verbal communication that a writer must convey using the mechanical devices at his disposal.

Words.

Depending on the context of the occurrence, think about what a smile can mean. The variations can be both a noun or a verb: smile, smirk, grin, sneer; there are probably more, should I wish to consult a thesaurus. They convey emotion and attitude, but I am working with the word, “smile,” in this case, used as a noun, and pretty generic by itself. I want to convey a mischievous attitude in a setting of admonishment and require an adjective to enhance the noun, “smile.”  Scene description: Hanna is being chewed out by her boss. It is a serious situation to him, but amusing to her, yet she must respect the severity of the event and the authority of her boss. Here is the sentence. What adjective would you use?

Hanna suppressed a (insert adjective here) smile. “Small target,” she said. “It was a tough shot.”

Initially, I used the adjective “tiny” to suggest she was trying to refrain from angering her boss further by making light of his scolding, but it wasn't working. So I picked another that works so much better. I used the word, "impish."

Have a better one?

If I like the word you suggest better than the one I used, I will use it in the novel with a nod to you on the Acknowledgements page. In the case of multiple suggestions of the same word, I will acknowledge the person who suggests it first (Comments are date-time stamped. Employees of Intrigue Publishing and affiliates as well as immediate family and household members are not eligible.) That should cover the legal-eagle stuff. 

 If this proves to work well, I will make this same offer whenever I am in search of … the “right” word.

Some deal, huh? No money, but a lot of fun.

So I suppose the point to this rambling is, if you want to right (I mean write), invest in words. They are beautiful, they are unique in and of themselves, and they are your tools—same as a hammer to a carpenter, a semi-automatic pistol to a police officer, or an automobile to a chauffeur.

Ya can’t write without ‘em.

Best Regards,

DB

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Illustration used with permission from Debbie Ridpath Ohi at Inkygirl.com

The Link.....

Ah! You DID take the link. And here you are. Good for you. Because you just saw what words can do in the hands of someone who knows how to use them. I’m not referring to me, of course. I can barely spell. I stole borrowed this example from a blog on marketing I ran across in Writer’s Digest. I was amazed how well it worked. I followed the link and Surprise! there was the sentence that told me they were expecting me. I had to smile, because I'd been had. They knew me better than I knew myself.

But that’s just it, isn’t it? They don’t know me at all. What they know is human nature, and what makes people tick. In essence, it’s the Who What Where When Why—and sometimes How that make folks do what they do. It’s curiosity that drives us, the ever present thirst for knowledge, to know something the other guy does not; to see what’s on the other side of the Looking Glass, or down the untraveled fork in the road, or under your bed at night.

So in my continuing search for said knowledge, I spoke with a friend of mine tonight about a more effective way to market myself, and in essence, the novel. I mentioned this blog, and that its readership comes from all over the world and numbers in the thousands, yet it gets virtually NO comments or questions or feedback of any kind. So I asked one of the “W” words.

Why?

He asked me if I tried closing the blog with a question, so I’m asking anyone and everyone who reads this blog….

How will asking a question generate comments?
Any takers?

Best Regards,

DB 

Website - www.dbcorey.com

Twitter - DB Corey

Twitter - Detective Moby Truax

DB Corey on Facebook - tinyurl.com/mltv6rs 

DB Corey Author FB site bit.ly/DBCorey-Author

DB Corey on LinkIn - tinyurl.com/oftk7do

Meet Myster Write on Facebook – www.facebook.com/MeetMysterWrite

Words: The Who What Where When & Why

I’m nearly through the first draft of my second novel, and I’m just now beginning to realize the power of words; how some words wield a power all their own, and how in certain circumstances, only a specific word will do. We write emotions, or actions, or states of being, and we agonize over using the word we know is there, but can’t remember.  I’ve spent far too much time trying to bring to mind the perfect word for a sentence of five words or less. Words are powerful, and if you know how to use them, you can command great power.

When you take this link you’ll learn the secret of What it takes to drive THOUSANDS to your site! Who doesn’t want to sell more books? Learn Why this works and Where you can get it! You will learn How to generate more sales!

Did you follow the link? Because if you did, you just saw what words can do in the hands of someone who knows how to use them. I’m not referring to me, of course. I can barely spell. I stole borrowed this example from a blog on marketing I ran across in Writer’s Digest. I was amazed how well it worked. I followed the link and Surprise! there was the sentence that told me they were expecting me. I had to smile, because I'd been had. They knew me better than I knew myself.

But that’s just it, isn’t it? They don’t know me at all. What they know is human nature, and what makes people tick. In essence, it’s the Who What Where When Why—and sometimes How that make folks do what they do. It’s curiosity that drives us, the ever present thirst for knowledge, to know something the other guy does not; to see what’s on the other side of the Looking Glass, or down the untraveled fork in the road, or under your bed at night.

So in my continuing search for said knowledge, I spoke with a friend of mine tonight about a more effective way to market myself, and in essence, the novel. I mentioned this blog, and that its readership comes from all over the world and numbers in the thousands, yet it gets virtually NO comments or questions or feedback of any kind. So I asked one of the “W” words. 

Why?

He asked me if I tried closing the blog with a question, so I’m asking anyone and everyone who reads this blog….

How will asking a question generate comments?

Any takers?

Best Regards,

DB 

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Website - www.dbcorey.com

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Meet Myster Write on Facebook – www.facebook.com/MeetMysterWrite

What They Leave Behind

I remember being about eight-years-old when my mother said, “Death comes in threes.” The passing of the third-of-three well known people prompted her to say that. I can’t remember who, but Humphrey Bogart comes to mind. She was just talking out loud, but being a kid, I picked up on it and asked her what she meant. She explained to me that they say Death came in threes; ‘they’ being, I found out later, the folks at Old Wives' Tales. She said that if someone dies that you know; whether you know of them, or know them personally, it always seemed that two more followed after the first one passed. 

It is, of course, an old wives' tale.

So why is it, that it turns out to be true more often than not?

In June of this year, we lost Vince Flynn. Mr. Flynn is probably the single most influential person in my life as far as putting pen to paper. That is an analogy, of course, but Flynn’s tenacity and perseverance, and his rise from obscurity to the heights of the New York Times Best Seller list led me to believe that I could actually succeed as a writer. He inspired me to try.

In August we lost Elmore Leonard, a giant in crime fiction, and the uncontested king of dialogue. Referred to as “A Novelist Who Made Crime an Art, and His Bad Guys ‘Fun’,” his “Ten Rules for GoodWriting” is a guide for any novice to emulate, and a bible for the rest of us. I confess I’ve never read Leonard, but I have found myself addicted to his screenplays—Get Shorty, 3:10 to Yuma, and Justified … a show I never missed. 

Then today I heard the sad news of the passing of Tom Clancy. Mr. Clancy holds a special place in my heart for a couple reasons.  

I never used to be much of a reader. I’d pick up a book here and there, but there was no consistency, no passion. In 1986, when my son was in his early, learning-to-read years, I wasn’t much of a role model. It was TV all the time, and my son was gravitating in that direction. It was my fault according to his mother—my wife—as she later informed me.

One day we were in a shopping mall and we passed a bookstore. I don’t remember which one. My wife turned, stopped me with a hand to my chest, and said, “Why don’t you set a good example for your son? Buy a book … and read it.”

It was less of a suggestion and more of an admonishment. Guilt is such a powerful motivator. I turned to the nearest in-store display that I could reach without moving and picked the thickest paperback I saw. The title was Red Storm Rising—by Tom Clancy. I took it home and started reading it that night.

I was hooked by the second page.

I don’t read much faster than I talk, about 200 words per minute, so you’ll understand that in the following weeks, I cursed Mr. Clancy because he kept me up to 4am reading his damn book. It got so bad that the wife complained that I wasn’t doing anything around the house. Sometimes, there just ain’t no pleasin’ ‘em. 

Clancy wrote about the things I was doing, the things I lived. During The Cold War I flew Navy in a P-2V Neptune and a P-3 Orion—airborne anti-submarine platforms. The P-3 was State-of the-Art at the time. He wrote about them, submarines, the military, and I freaking loved it! I bought and read every book he ever wrote—hard cover—up through Executive Order. When he shifted away from novels for a short time, I lost track of him. I wasn’t particularly interested in video games.

I guess, in summary, my mother was right, old wives' tales an’ all. Within the span of several months, we have lost three of the greatest writers of our time. Their unique styles and stories may be copied, maybe even partially plagiarized, but their accomplishments will never be duplicated. Flynn worked a commercial real estate company and gave up his job to become required reading in the CIA anit-terrorist divisions. Clancy was an insurance agent and became one of this century’s foremost experts on the Cold War and military tactics.

I cut and pasted the following from The New York Times, so I hope they don’t sue me, but I found this intriguing.

 

In a 1986 interview, Mr. Clancy said, “When I met Navy Secretary John Lehman last year, the first thing he asked me about the book was, ‘Who the hell cleared it?’ ”

No one did, Mr. Clancy insisted; all of his knowledge came from technical manuals, interviews with submarine experts and books on military matters, he said. While he spent time on military bases, visited the Pentagon and dined with military leaders, he said, he did not want to know any classified information.

“I hang my hat on getting as many things right as I can,” Mr. Clancy once said in an interview. “I’ve made up stuff that’s turned out to be real — that’s the spooky part.”

The “spooky” part for me is that the things fiction writers write, oft become reality. Guys like Flynn and Leonard and Clancy have left behind a legacy for the rest of us to learn from, to emulate, and to aspire to. That may not be grammatically correct, but is it really that important?

Elmore would probably say no...

... because it’s how people talk.

God rest you, Tom Clancy, and thank you.

DB

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