Synonyms are good. They enable us to narrow a concept to the exact connotation we wish to convey. Unnecessary synonyms, on the other hand, weaken writing and speech by replacing a strong word with an invented or obsolete equivalent. Reluctancy and humbleness are two such “unnecessary synonyms” I’ve noticed recently. Recent examples of reluctancy in … Read more
Over the coming months we will publish interviews with book authors, focusing on the process of actually writing the book, launching and promoting it. Many of these authors are not professional writers and are publishing their very first book, which should provide valuable insights for people aspiring to do the same. David Hauser is a … Read more
The verb to wake has a long history in English. Its most common meaning today is “to become or cause to become awake.” As a verb, woke is a past tense: I woke in the night and could not go back to sleep. Charles woke me in time to catch the early train The word … Read more
Often, the English language appears to have been invented by a malicious entity. But although Noah Webster—the American lexicographer who complicated things, rather than simplifying them, by advocating for changes in spelling rules to differentiate American English from its British English parent—can take some of the blame, the idiosyncrasies of both forms of English are … Read more
As we are in the first week of NANOWRIMO—the yearly challenge to writers to produce a 50,000-word novel in the thirty days of November—an overview of the cozy mystery may be of use to participants who have chosen that genre as their challenge. The adjective cozy (Br. cosy) applies to people, places, and things. A … Read more