The power of fiction, the beauty of words, and the God who made us to wield them for His glory.

Smile!

Smiles can be so expressive, can’t they?  When we interact with someone, reading their smile plays a significant role in the impression we form of them and the way we interpret what they are saying. For the writer, there are any number of adjectives that can be applied to smiles: wry, embarrassed, half-hearted, coy, smug, gloating.  There are also several synonyms for smile, each of which will create a slightly different impression in the reader: grin, beam, leer, smirk.  Using the right word or combination of words is important if you’re going to convey the right image and tone to

Read More »
21 December 2015

Word painting

I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with adjectives, but here’s a good one to add to your vocabulary: ignominious (adj) – deserving or causing public disgrace or shame It even sounds like you’re looking down your nose at something when you say it.  Go on, say it out loud.  Ig-no-MIN-i-ous. I particularly like it coupled with conclusion or ending. A humiliating defeat has a very different emotional connotation to ignominious conclusion.   There’s something of the stiff upper lip about the latter that is almost the complete opposite of the former, don’t you think? Perhaps that’s why this sentence

Read More »
11 December 2015

Reading Between the Lines

I don’t know about you, but I love it when authors manage to say things without actually saying them.  Subtlety in writing is an artform that fewer and fewer authors seem to grasp, but when I read this recently I had to laugh: She climbed the stairs to the second level, where cool marble floors gleamed and the scents of wax and the freesias in their Chinese vase on the hall table greeted her in a silent benediction.  There was much to be said for silence.  Perhaps Mama had not yet returned from paying her afternoon calls. Lady of Devices

Read More »
1 December 2015