Anita's Attic: Favorite Words

I hope everyone had a happy Easter! A couple of weeks ago, we got our own little bunny. Actually she's a puppy, not a bunny, but she looks like a cuddly bunny. I joke that she could be the next Cadbury bunny. We have a four year old white boxer that we loved, so when the family begged and pleaded, promising outlandish things, I caved and agreed.

We were worried that the older dog would take some adjusting since she's been queen of the house for four years, but no worries. She thinks we love her so much that we went out and bought her a live toy. Isn't this the cutest picture of them. They were both sound asleep, cuddled in each other's arms.

So enough about cute puppies, let's talk writing. We all know the importance of word choice. Words can be strong or weak, imply many different things. Take the word WALK. Sometimes that's the perfect word. Other times, AMBLE, STAGGER, STRUT, SWAGGER, STUMBLE, TRUDGE, STROLL, or BUMBLE might be better. Each one of those word carries a different picture.

Same with LOOK (which is a crutch word, one of those words I seriously overuse. We'll talk about those next week). GLARE, SCOWL, GLOWER are much more powerful. That isn't to saw we shouldn't use LOOK. We might need it. I find I do far too often. :) But a SCOWL says so much more, and a GLOWER is even better. They immediately give the reader a feel for the character's mood. And there's GLIMPSE, PEER, PEEK, STARE, GAPE, GAWK. Gawk is a good one. Immediately sets a tone. GAZE, OBSERVE, EYEBALL, SPY, OGLE, OBSERVE, SCRUTINIZE.

TALK? How about CHATTER, JABBER, WHISPER, BLAB?

TOUCH? How about CARESS, STROKE, PAT, BRUSH (fingers)

TAKE? How about GRIP,CLUTCH, GRAB, GRASP, SEIZE, SNATCH.

SCREAM? How about YELL, HOLLER, SCREECH, YOWL, SHOUT, ROAR, BELLOW, YELP, SQUEAL, SHRIEK.

We all know this stuff, but it's so easy to forget and use weaker words that don't have punch. Over the years, I've collected a rag-tag list of words and phrases I like. It started as strong verbs and moved on to just anything that I like, and sometimes I added a word that I wanted to use for a specific story. These aren't in alphabetical order. That would be too organized. For now, it's just a big list of strong words. I will post some of them next week. Do you have a list of favorite words?