This is my favourite dictionary. My infuriating eye for detail compels me to tell you it weighs in at sixteen pounds and has 450,000 definitions. If it isn’t in here, it hasn’t been coined. Sometimes the words tumble over each other in their excitement to get out, at others they must be coaxed gently...
Writing scares me. I fear the blank page and the blinking cursor so I am forever noting interesting potential titles and preparing subject matter. A tall glass of ice-cold Diet Coke, beaded with condensation sits at my side as I trawl my list. Music off to permit total concentration. If the family is in I wear tight elbow/forearm support against my dreaded RSI and type, if they’re out I plug in the mic and speak aloud and freely to the PC.
Ready, steady go...
Once I thought more words made better sense. Now I understand they only confuse. The clever trick is to make your point using the fewest words possible. I can’t banish adjectives and adverbs entirely from my page, so I try to choose them carefully. A noun improves with qualification but becomes muddy with an adjectival clause. A verb is perhaps not the right verb if it requires an adverb.
An image forms in my mind, part of a story I want to tell. I want to describe the view so the reader sees it too. I Imagine videotape rolling, describe exactly what I see, especially the trivial and keep to the plot. Painting a picture with words that approach the subject from an unusual angle can make it spring off the page in colour.
I select a recent photograph (from the five or six I take every day) relevant to my thoughts. Next I define the limits of my subject. Now I plot a beginning, a middle and an end. Finally I am ready to write. The shorter the better, a reader will grow bored after a thousand words. I dream up enough phrases to attract attention but hold some back. Over-egg the cake, and that rich diet makes everyone bilious. The best results come quickly and without effort. No good hurrying the words, the harder you chase them around your head the deeper they hide.
Kill the PC, slip on my trainers and take a walk. I pick up my MP3 player on the way out, press in the ear-buds and scroll through four hundred albums. ‘Kaiser Chiefs’ will do today. Listen hard to the lyrics (don’t forget I need a lyric quote for my blog too.) Today’s words will emerge later, when I have stopped thinking so hard and the coast is clear.
Middle-aged forgetfulness often robs me of my best, most startling thoughts. Now I know I must snatch them from the space between eyes and screen and commit them to Word© before they are lost forever. Spell-check, proof read etc... I want beautiful prose, deep thinking and iron-clad, copper-bottomed accuracy. Mostly I fall short of my aspirations. I pour another impossibly tall glass of ice-cold Diet Coke.
I am a true Virgo, demanding perfection in myself as well as others. I keep writing and refuse to admit I am human...
"I know, I feel it in my bones,
I'm sick, I'm tired of staying in control."
Kaiser Chiefs - Everyday I Love You Less and Less
28 June 2005
Writing about words about writing
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15 comments:
Dionysius - well put indeed. The difficulty of making oneself properly understood is frustrating. As you say, each of us has his own fixed idea of a word's meaning, probably subtly different from the author's.
I take comfort that the blogging world has signposts and markers which allow like-minded thinkers to congregate. We discount blogs that appear tangential to our own thoughts and read elsewhere. When we discover a thinker on or very close to our own wavelength we pin them down in our favourites list. We read his or her links and that way distil a circle of friends who understand what the heck we are saying!
Kimberly - yes I am always looking out for inspiration for the next piece, music helps me a lot. Sometimes the lyric is the foundation for my writing, other times it's the photo. But I always hunt out a lyric, always!
As for the dictionary, I was seduced by its completeness, then I had to figure out how to carry it home. Good point! How can third be new? New implies first! Never mind it is chock full of amazing words - I'm off to learn a few more...
That blank page is a big scare warden isn't it? I am still trying to maintain five sites (and failing badly). Somedays I can write for England and others . . .nothing.
I too love books of words. Having grown up with some ugly characters whose first choice of weapon is either their fist or a baseball bat it is true knowledge and wisdom to see the absolute power of well honed and well chosen words.
Glad to see you are into the Kaiser Chiefs. I love 'em and have been going on about them on my Utility Fish site for yonks.
Sorry to say as much as I would love a Harley (the same as ridden by Billy Connoly) I know nothing about mechanics and therefore didn't leave any comments on your previous post as any comments I could have left would have been nonsensical.
I love this site and you would never have guessed from the easy and laid back feel that you PV fear the blank page as everything is so readable and entertaining.
CJ - Yes I love words and I can tell from your own writing that you do too. Everything is available from stinging barbs to gentle platitudes.
Thank you for your extremely kind words about my humble efforts. I sometimes think of the swan, all grace and poise above the surface but underneath frantic paddling and steering! Swan? Ugly duckling perhaps...
Great new bands this year, eh? Kaiser Chiefs, Bloc Party, Paddingtons, Subways - keeps me young-ish! I noticed your reference to Kaiser Chiefs a while ago. Did you catch them at Glastonbury on BBC3? Ricky was interviewed a couple of times and he virtually stole the show from the crass presenters - a natural entertainer!
I'm off to ride my new bike...
Your words never cease to amaze me. They are always beautiful and your thoughts well put together. Me = dang I just sit down and write whatever - it's therapy for me. I enjoy reading your blog tremendously. So whatever concept you use continue to do so because I would miss your writings. Being a Virgo myself bro I am so hard on myself sometimes it scares me. I've learned not to expect it from others. See, look at me writing now. Just writing whatever comes to mind. Love you bro!
Peace,
JJ
JJ - we Virgos can be our own harshest critics, I know. I am obsessed with detail, lists, organisation and accuracy so you can imagine I sit here polishing my words forever before punching that "Publish" button.
Thank you for taking the time to read my words. I read you daily too and I admire how you set out your thoughts in a straight forward honest way. Love you too sis!
A dictionary is a false drug for the cancer that is writing.
Okay, okay - I'm a pretentious twat. I guess what I mean is, that while I love a good dictionary, perhaps more than the next man, I never pick one up when writing - but that's a personal choice and maybe I should try it out.
Sorry for the ugly metaphor I spilt in the previous comment.
Kimberly - very true. We are attracted to like-thinking souls and I for one draw inspiration from those I read. The blog world is good like that, it allows us to choose a circle, one which we would be unlikely to assemble in real life.
Ruk - its no good as a tool for writing I agree, you have to be already familiar with the words before you can use them. I like this big dictionary just to check precise meanings and its sort of comforting to have all those words in one book.
The book I truly loathe is the Thesaurus, the cheat's almanac. Surely half the fun is trying to dredge up all those synonyms and antonyms from memory.
Pretentious? Toi?!
Dionysius - let me do my dictionary a little more justice - 2662 pages of which the first 119 are introductory giving abreviations, conventions and instructions on use! Luckily the etymology of the entries is included although not to a specialist extent.
I studied English, French and German at school in the 1970s in both langusge and literature, also Latin to a lesser degree. I too love the roots and derivations that are as clear as day when you know the clues.
I work in banking with figures, rates, percentages and ratios so I find words a vital source of pleasure and escape...
Dionysius - I had a Japanese air-cooled 750 triple in the 70s. Balancing 3 carburettors was an ongoing task! FI makes life easier, cold starting is never a problem, stalling is nearly impossible, fuel economy is better etc...
Liquid cooling is more efficient, engine noise is damped plus you get a sweet little radiator up front!
Harley owners have a similar reputation to owners of British bikes in the UK. They shun modern engineering in preference to oil leaks, unreliable electrics and sloppy handling. If that is what they mean by keeping biking real then I'd rather walk!
For me the Japanese have made biking pure. Repair manuals are made redundant by their seemingly bulletproof motors and routine maintenance is a doddle.
I am up to my elbows in words these days and have never been happier. But I wanted to stop in and say hello cause I miss you!
Jen - lovely to see your friendly face around here. I can tell you've been busy but I miss you like crazy...
Flea - nice juicy comments as ever - I love that you guys take the trouble to respond so fully. The thesaurus is a cheat's manual, I agree. The big dic just helps me nail down as precise a definition as is available.
How very, very true about "professorial" laguage. I someimes re-read my posts and think "Is that English too basic and monosyllabic?" Then I decide "No, well-chosen simple words can be highly effective.
Thanks for the recommendation, I'm a sucker for books containing words about words!!
Finnegan - oh very nicely quoted sir! How the meaning of words shifts subtley across the centuries. Bill Shakesby would have applied the word 'stink' to a sweet, fresh scent.
Here's another opposite - today the kids say 'wicked' when they mean 'good.'
The metaphor is marvellous fun, if we coin one ourself we have to be so careful not to convey precisely the opposite of our meaning!
I love your secret interpretation of my 'dic' reference! Next to heavy-handed sarcasm, my favourite humour is anything word related. Puns, Anagrams, palindromes, Spoonerisms and doubles entendres pepper my everyday spoken language! No wonder people claim I talk in riddles...
As ever, a comment and a half my good man!
SilvermOOn - I am envious of your feminine dic collection. No wonder you can't sleep at night with all those choice words to peruse!
I agree on the thesaurus front, I enjoy the mental task of sifting and selecting the right word - "le mot juste." But heck we are all human so a dip into Roget is forgivable.
I knew a true writer would see this post and comment. Magenta and teal have deep resonance of course.
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