Comments on: Writing rules, misapplied: don’t consult your thesaurus

By: Delia

Delia — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:44:04 +0000

Nice post. wendypalmer.com.au deserves an oscar.

By: Writing rules, misapplied: open with action | Wendy Palmer

Writing rules, misapplied: open with action | Wendy Palmer — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 05:56:39 +0000

[...] exploring when good writing rules go bad. Previous entries are here: Adjectives and adverbs II. Don’t consult your thesaurus Kill your darlings Write what you know Cut 10% in editing Avoid adjectives and adverbs Show, [...]

By: Writing rules, misapplied: adjectives and adverbs II « Wendy Palmer

Writing rules, misapplied: adjectives and adverbs II « Wendy Palmer — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 23:50:09 +0000

[...] entries about misapplied writing rules: Don’t consult your thesaurus Kill your darlings Write what you know Cut 10% in editing Avoid adjectives and adverbs Show, [...]

By: Writing round « Wendy Palmer

Writing round « Wendy Palmer — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 07:57:15 +0000

[...] | Tags: books, fiction, library, writing | The ‘Save the Last Word’ campaign, discussed previously here, has resulted in the some words being rescued from the Collins Dictionary cut, as reported by [...]

By: Pleasing the reader: dealing with minor criticisms « Wendy Palmer

Pleasing the reader: dealing with minor criticisms « Wendy Palmer — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 08:17:56 +0000

[...] is, by the way, why I feel the need to post the occasional Writing Rules, Misapplied entry: writing rules are useful for beginners, but not if they’re blindly applied without [...]

By: Wendy

Wendy — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 13:56:14 +0000

Embrangle’s my favourite too and it might yet be saved; it won the online Times poll as readers’ favourite, followed by fubsy.

The list has been a boon for me: my current story features two related languages, Standard and Dialect – Dialect is a very close but regional version of the language (like Provencal is to French). I’ve been using a 1700s slang dictionary for words like mot, tib, feague, and prigg, but this gives me a few more unusual words to play with.

By: Julie

Julie — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 13:34:59 +0000

Embrangle? They can’t get rid of embrangle, I love it!

You’re right of course. Half of the delight of reading is stretching to include new thoughts, and that includes new words as well.