This week: Ideanary Tool - Better Than A Thesaurus Edited by: Sara♥Jean  
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Ideanary Tool - Better Than A Thesaurus
Have you ever read your story, and you see the same word over and over and over? So much so, that you start counting?
I have. More than once. I find myself in the of some action or some other sort of delicate scene, I read through it, and I'm like, "My goodness, how many times do I say the word fast? Can't my character do something other than just be fast?"
Well, according to my scene, apparently not. He has one constant pace. Fast.
So, the first thing I started to pull out was a thesaurus. And then, I found that I got even more frustrated. Not only do most of the words not seem to match what I am really looking for, they sometimes get overly complicated. When I have a fast paced fight scene going on, it isn't the right time for a word like, "velocious" or "posthaste". I could only imagine:
He moved across the floor with velocious speed, slamming his fist into the bad guy's gut, posthaste!
No.
Just... no.
Not only am I not using the words well, I am simply making the writing chunky and forcing the change, which interrupts the flow.
I'm not the only one that has this problem, I swear! With scenes that involve a lot of action - which involves description of surroundings as well as description of movement (and everything else), there are simply a lot of words to juggle.
So, I found another fun tool that actually exists on this particular website. It is called the "Ideanary", and it is found on the left sidebar within "Writing.Com Tools". It is amazing. 
Unlike a thesaurus, which shows synonyms and antonyms for the word in question, the Ideanary shows ideas based around the word you search for. I find it so much easier to use that tool for alternative words.
So, instead of the above, I was able to come up with something like this:
He moved headlong across the floor, abruptly slamming his fist into the bad guy's gut!
Much. Better.
I hope it comes in handy for you, as well! |
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Last month, I challenged readers to show instead of tell with the following sentence: Susan threw the pot against the wall angrily.
These were the responses. Great job everyone! It's fascinating to see how one sentence can be rewritten in so many different ways.
In a heightened rage, eyes filled with tears and fire, the pot flew across the room leaving a massive scar on the wall. ~ Goblin Slayer 
Susan threw the heavy pot against the wall with great violence as she gritted her teeth on curses her mother never taught her. ~ dragonwoman
After kicking the bottom drawer of the soup-soaked stove and releasing a head-splitting shriek, Susan threw the near-empty pot against the wall with the force of a hurricane. ~ 🎼 RRodgersWrites 🎶 
Susan's face turned bright red as she clenched her jaw, her breathing increasing in speed. Her left hand balled up into a tight fist before she drew her right hand back to throw the pot against the wall. ~ Dominique
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Other feedback from the same newsletter:
S. E. Mabson said, "Thank you so much for highlighting one of my pieces! This article is one of many aspects of improvement I have been working towards. Do you you think it is too much description?"
I would have to look at it again to see, but I remember liking it quite a lot! And you are welcome. ~ SJ
hbk16 said, "The descriptions render any text a live expression and allow to the reader to comprehend it easily. Useful notification! Thanks!"
I agree! Definitely necessary for comprehension. ~ SJ
Goblin Slayer said, "Also, I don't have it yet but I want it, look up Alexandra Ackerman's emotional thesaurus as well as some of her other thesauruses, I've heard they're absolutely excellent."
Thank you so much for the tip! ~ SJ
This month's submission request:
Use the Ideanary in Writing.Com Tools (on the left sidebar) to edit one of your own sentences, then share the original and new sentence with us! We'd love to see. |
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Noticing Newbies: December 19, 2018 Issue [#9291]
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