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happy sunday, readers & writers! thanks to yesterdays writers (C Johnson, Josh Frank, Theresa Milstein, Amy, krowles1981 and FilmGuy - whose post disappeared into cyberspace forever) for your get well wishes and stories.
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by the way, my friend josh frank recently lost his job (darn economy!) and is making a go of social media consulting and web design full time. so if you're in the market for a new website or graphic design for print or web, head on over to his site, Black Frame Media, for a visit. josh is also a great photographer. you'll soon see one of his photos here on a photog friday!
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today's photo prompt is going to prompt us to practice shopping for words.
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in a keynote address, author barbara brown taylor (whom i was thrilled to hear in person) spoke about choosing words as carefully as if she were shopping for something important. like shopping for the perfect gift to share with a friend, just the right color of paint for your house, or the best ingredients to make up a holiday meal -- taking your time to shop around for just the right word is a worthy investment. i love the idea of word choice as discernment... searching for that word might nudge a sentence, paragraph, or poem into place.
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i snapped this photo at a tile store recently while a friend struggled with the decision of what colors to use in her upcoming bathroom redesign. think about how much time we spend deciding what color to paint our walls or what shoes we're going to buy - and let's give it a whirl with writing:
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1) visit the following website (www.thesaurus.com).
2) look up a word and read all of the synonyms listed for it.
3) then write the same sentence or paragraph three or four different times, each time using a different synonym for the word you chose.
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you can write something fresh for today, or take the opportunity to go back to a work in progress. if you want to you can put a star by the one you think works the best. here's what i mean:
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From a short story I'm working on:
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word: few (pronoun)
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A few stars toiled through the pollution of the capitol city
and a breeze cooled her face, bringing with it the scent of cherry blossoms.
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A scattering of stars toiled through the pollution of the capitol city
and a breeze cooled her face, carrying on it the scent of cherry blossoms.
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A smattering of stars toiled through the pollution of the capitol city
and a breeze cooled her face, carrying on it the scent of cherry blossoms.*
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A sprinkling of stars toiled through the pollution of the capitol city
and a breeze cooled her face, delivering the scent of cherry blossoms.
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it's been fun shopping with you! click on comments to share what word gems you discover on your shopping expedition. come write with me!
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Inspired (by my wife)
ReplyDeleteGod sat upon his thrown and looked down on the vast landscape of the earth. His presence drifted over the seas and the mountains and the valleys until he stopped at a great crack in the ground. Something was lacking and he gazed for a time at the space which was in need of something more. Millennia passed as he contemplated what this place needed. Angels drifted past his vision and motioned toward his right hand and he smiled at them as they floated away. He let his hand fall and reach into the tiny bag that sat at his feet and when his fingers touched a solid object he let them close. Slowly he drew forth that which he had grasped and when his eyes looked upon the object which he held he said, “Let this be what is seen by our children.”
One hundred million years later a man on a raft in the Grand Canyon snaps a photo of an interesting bit of rock formation. It is a reddish cliff of rock with stripes of lighter colored beige lines passing through on different angles. He shows the photo to a friend and marvels at the colors and the shapes and wonders how they got to be that way.
It is interesting to speculate on how that particular place became that way. Perhaps, some day we will know for sure.