#BookADayUK; A Reader Event For October. Day 17

Today, the #bookadayUK event suggestion is 'The nearest book to you right now'. I'm in my study and there are books lining the walls to my front and back, about equidistant. So, the obvious choice is the only book on my desk. That's a 1987 edition of Roget's Thesaurus. An excellent word-finder.

I know there are writers who suggest that you should have only difficult access to a thesaurus, making your mind do the work. But I write as a pantster and therefore use the first word that comes into my head as I create. I don't wait for the 'best' word at this stage. When I edit, I then select the best word or phrase: that, after all, is what editing is all about. So, I have my trusty thesaurus handy on the desk.

It isn't my only word-finder. There is, of course, the built in thesaurus provided by Word: a largely inadequate tool that rarely furnishes the bon mot. I also have a copy of Hartampf's Vocabulary Builder, The Oxford Compact Thesaurus, J.J.Rodale's The Synonym Finder, and The New Nuttall Dictionary of English Synonyms and Antonyms. So, I'm pretty well provided for in terms of books for finding alternative words. Add to that the Wordweb app that sits in the tray and, together, they make a pretty formidable team.

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Beware The Thesaurus.

The Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A little while ago, I came across the following statement, made by a professional journalist reporting in the local media: ‘The crash took place…’

I won’t bore you with the rest of the details. But, as I’m sure you’ll agree, a crash is an accident and accidents ‘happen’, they don’t ‘take place’.  Meetings, concerts, pre-planned events ‘take place’.

This set me thinking about the way in which most writers seek out alternative words and expressions to prevent repetition and dullness and to enliven their work. The bulk of us turn to the thesaurus, whether in book form or online. I use two different versions most of the time: the excellent, short, but useful online program known as WordWeb, which is a free to use application that can be downloaded and associated with your word processor to check for definitions and alternatives for a large number of words. Click here for a link to the download website.

I prefer, however, the much more comprehensive book, The Original Roget’s Thesaurus, in the 1987 edition, prepared by Betty Kirkpatrick. I have alternatives on my shelves: Hartrampf’s Vocabulary Builder, the Oxford Compact Thesaurus, The Slang Thesaurus, The New Nuttall Dictionary of English Synonyms and Antonyms, and A Dictionary of Euphemisms and Other Doubletalk.

The danger with the thesaurus, of course, is rather akin to that posed by the ubiquitous spellchecker on the PC: it depends for its effectiveness on a level of understanding from the user. Spellcheck ‘their’, ‘there’, and ‘they’re’ and all will pass the test with ease. Usage determines the correct spelling. With a thesaurus, it’s essential that the user at least understands what the word actually means.

An example, then.

I suspect the vast majority of readers here will know the word, ‘wanton’. And I guess most would recognise its use as an adjective in the following couple of sentences:

‘She dressed in a manner suggestive of her wanton nature, advertising her readiness to serve any and every man present.’

‘He pulled his partner back to his feet and knocked him down again, before laying into him in wanton violence as the poor wretch lay at his feet.’

Yes, I know; clichéd examples but, bear with me: I wanted samples that gave context to the word in question and in both these ‘wanton’ is easily defined by reference to its usage.

If, however, you were to use an unusual word without such contextual clues, it would be very easy to employ a totally unsuitable alternative simply by consulting a thesaurus. I’ll illustrate what I mean. First, lets’ see how the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary defines ‘wanton’:

Wanton: (SOED) Adj: Of a person – undisciplined, ungoverned, unmanageable, rebellious, jovial, inclined to joking, carefree, petulant, spoilt, self-indulgent, insolent in triumph or prosperity, reckless, merciless (of a boy) childishly cruel or unruly. Of an animal – skittish, refractory, unmanageable, frisky, frolicsome,.

Originally only of a woman – thought, action etc: lustful, sexually promiscuous, flirtatious.

Of colour or music – cheerful, lively

Of an object – moving freely as if alive, unrestrained

Of wealth, clothing, diet, a way of life – luxurious, extravagant,

Of cruelty or violence – unprovoked, reckless, gratuitous

Of speech and imagination – extravagant, impetuous, unrestrained

Fastidious or dainty in appetite, profuse in growth, luxuriant.

I suspect there are more meanings here than most readers expected. Some, of course, are now either rare or generally used only in a literary or poetic sense. Nevertheless, the most common usages of the word are buried amongst many other meanings. So, this is a word for which the dictionary provides a number of different meanings, which would only become apparent by context. Already, we have a recipe for potential confusion.

If we now examine the entries in The Original Roget’s Thesaurus for the same word, used as an adjective, we find the following suggestions under their headings:

-changeful:

changing, mutable, alterable, phased, changeable, shifting, vicissitudinous, varying, variant, variable, nonuniform, kaleidoscopic, iridescent, protean, multiform, quick-change, versatile, skilful, uncertain, unreliable, vacillating, wavering, irresolute, moody, unpredictable, unaccountable, unexpected, never the same, ever-changing, volatile, mercurial, different, wayward, fickle, whimsical, capricious, giddy, dizzy, flighty, wanton, irresponsible, frivolous, light-minded, shifty, inconstant, unfaithful, disloyal, traitorous, tergiversating.

-capricious:

motiveless, purposeless, whimsical, fanciful, fantastic, eccentric, humoursome, temperamental, crotchety, maggoty, freakish, fitful, hysterical, mad, crazy, prankish, mischievous, wanton, wayward, perverse, faddy faddish, particular, fastidious, captious, arbitrary, unreasonable, fretful, moody, contrary, irascible, undisciplined, refractory, wilful, erratic, uncertain, unpredictable, unexpected, volatile, mercurial, skittish, giddy, frivolous, light-minded, inconsistent, inconstant, variable, unstable, irresponsible, unreliable, fickle, feckless, tergiversating, flirtatious, coquettish, playful.

-free:

freeborn, enfranchised, heart-whole, fancy-free, unattached, scot-free, acquitted, on the loose, at large, escaped, released, freed, liberated, free as air, free as the wind, free as a bird, footloose, go-as-you-please, ranging, travelling, ranging freely, having full play, licensed, chartered, privileged, permitted, exempt, immune, nonliable, free-speaking, plain-spoken, plain, free-thinking, emancipated, broad, broadminded, latitudinarian, unbiased, unprejudiced, independent, uninfluenced, just, free and easy, all things to all men, sociable, loose, licentious, unbridled, incontinent, wanton, impure, at leisure, out of harness, retired, relaxed, unbuttoned, at home, at ease, leisurely, free of cost, gratis, freebie, on the house, for free, unpaid for, uncharged, unclaimed, going begging, unwanted, free for all, unreserved, vacant, unoccupied, up for grabs, accessible.

  

-rash:

ill-considered, ill-conceived, ill-advised, harebrained, foolhardy, wildcat, injudicious, indiscreet, imprudent, unwise, careless, hit-and-miss, slapdash, free-and-easy, accident-prone, negligent, unforeseeing, not-looking, uncircumspect, lemming-like, incautious, unwary, heedless, thoughtless, inconsiderate, uncalculating, inattentive, light, frivolous, airy, breezy, flippant, giddy, devil-may-care, harum-scarum, slaphappy, trigger-happy, light-minded, irresponsible, reckless, regardless, couldn’t-care-less, don’t-care, damning the consequences, lunatic, wanton, wild, cavalier, bold, daring, temerarious, audacious, overdaring, overbold, madcap, daredevil, do-or-die, neck or nothing, breakneck, suicidal, overambitious, over the top, oversanguine, oversure, overconfident, hoping, overweening, presumptuous, arrogant, insolent, precipitate, gadarene, headlong, hell-bent, desperate, hasty, unchecked, headstrong, wilful, untaught by experience, ignorant, impulsive, impatient, hot-bloodied, fire-eating, furious, excitable, danger-loving, unfearing, venturesome, speculative, adventurous, thrill-seeking, risk-taking, enterprising, improvident, thriftless, prodigal.

-unchaste:

unvirtuous, vicious, susceptible, not impregnable, frail, fallen, seduced, prostituted, taken advantage of, of easy virtue, of loose morals, amoral, immoral, incontinent, light, wanton, loose, fast, naughty, wild, rackety, immodest, daring, revealing, unblushing, shameless, brazen, flaunting, scarlet, meretricious, whorish, tarty, promiscuous, sleeping around, screwing around, streetwalking, on the game, Paphian, Aphrodisian.

A total of 380 alternatives is presented. True, some are duplicated under the various headings, but there are still many from which the writer may choose. Anyone not conversant with the ways of the thesaurus might be fooled into selecting any one of these words as an alternative to ‘wanton’.  And, whilst a great many of them could act as a suitable replacement, there are many which would not do at all.

Let’s try it:

‘She dressed in a manner suggestive of her shifting nature, advertising her readiness to serve any and every man present.’

‘He pulled his partner back to his feet and knocked him down again, before laying into him in coquettish violence as the poor wretch lay at his feet.’

In the female sentence, the woman is now no longer specifically a sexually active creature but someone who accommodates to the needs of the men, perhaps in order to deal with their work requirements.

In the male version, the violence has taken a farcical turn, possibly describing a lover’s tiff solved by aggressive coitus.

So, perhaps not the best possible example but one that I hope illustrates the importance of ensuring that you understand the real meaning before substituting one word for another.  We don’t, after all, want any tarty violence perpetrated on any free-thinking men, do we? Or, perhaps, we do!

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The Emotion Thesaurus, by Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi, Reviewed

I promised my wonderful and long-suffering wife that I wouldn’t buy any more book until I’d read everything on our shelves. Now, here I am buying a new thesaurus after reading only 31 of the original 188 titles awaiting my attention. Why? Well my friend, Avril Field-Taylor, (she’s a friend, and she made me break a promise to my wife?) passed on a review of this book. Here's the link to that. It was the review that persuaded me to bend my knee and ask my lovely other half to bend the rules. Being the woman she is, she agreed, of course.

So, what’s this reference work like?

Well, surprisingly, it’s in the form of a thesaurus: novel, eh? There’s a short introductory section that provides a brief overview of emotion and its place in writing. A short article on avoiding common problems in conveying nonverbal emotion follows. And a short explanatory piece then explains how best to use the thesaurus. After these pieces come the listings.

Now, I don’t know about you, but perhaps because I’m a man and therefore emotionally challenged, I’d have found it difficult to come up with a list of more than ten emotions. So it was something of a surprise to discover 75, yes seventy five, listed here. For each of these, the authors have provided a definition of the emotion, a list of physical signals, the internal sensations experienced, the mental responses felt, cues of acute or long-term encounters with and cues of suppressed experience of the emotion. The final piece on each is a short writer’s tip.

The book sets out to enable writers to convey emotion in the time-honoured fashion of ‘showing’ rather than the easier and less satisfying ‘telling’. By equipping the writer with a variety of physical signs (body language), visceral experiences (the true and unavoidable internal responses) and degrees of response, the authors help writers to bring deeper feelings to the readers of their works. It succeeds in its stated purpose, by the way.

I shall keep this book beside me as I edit in the future, ensuring I create real emotion on the page rather than allow cliché and familiar expression to convey the feelings of my characters.

My thanks to the unknown reviewer and my great thanks to Angela and Becca for a super little reference book that I expect to improve my writing for years to come. I think it’s probably redundant for me to say I recommend this book, but, there, I’ve said it anyway.

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Books About Writing Books

Check out the Thesaurus' sibling, Dictionary. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As writers, we all need to read; it's an essential part of the creative process. Anyone who tries to write but doesn't read will fail unless they rank amongst the geniuses.

But it's not the books you read for comparison, pleasure, or general information I want to discuss today. I want to introduce you to those books I use when actually engaged in the process of writing. I've never been a particular fan of the 'How To…' approach, although I do have a couple of titles, which begin with those words, on my shelves. I find myself drawn more to two distinctly diverse sets of books on or to do with writing.

First there are what I would define as the essential reference books; the dictionaries, grammar guides and others to do with the mechanics of setting words down on paper.

I once met a man, who styled himself an author, and discovered he didn't own a dictionary and never consulted one, even online. I was puzzled how someone dealing with words could be so uninterested in their true meanings, how an author could work without something as basic as a guide to what words actually mean. And then I had the misfortune to read one of his stories. It was, mercifully, short. Something like ten per cent of the words suffered incorrect spelling, another five per cent were simply the wrong words in the wrong places and, in a couple of cases, the words he'd used actually meant the exact opposite to what he had intended. I gently pointed out these facts to him. 'Just because it's in a dictionary, doesn't make it right!' was his first retort. I was tempted to use logic and reason on this poor arrogant and misguided fool but saw at once I'd be wasting my breath. He hasn't sent me any more of his writing. Although that wasn't my aim, I have to say I'm pleased. I hate cruelty, and the way he tortured English must have contravened some Article of the Geneva Convention. In fact, I believe he's stopped writing and is now expressing his talent through rather poorly executed  drawings. And, no, he's never had a drawing lesson or taken the trouble to visit an art gallery or read a book to see how an accomplished artist does the job.

I've used a number of dictionaries over the years, but my favourite is undoubtedly the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, which I have in the 2 volume version in print and on a CD Rom. It probably says much about me that I prefer to rifle through the printed books when looking for meanings and/or spellings. I also have Partridge's A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, which is an excellent piece of work, though rather pricey. The Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors has a place on my shelf and is consulted for those small technical issues not covered by other tomes. Then there's Laurence Urdlang's A Dictionary of Misunderstood Misused Mispronounced Words, which is a great source of fun as well as reference; good for 'dipping'. I gathered Julian Franklyn's A Dictionary of Rhyming Slang one day when I came across it in a book shop at the time I was developing a cockney character for a story; a useful addition, if a little specialist. And Hugh Rawson's A Dictionary of Euphemisms and Other Doubletalk is a source of as much amusement as it is of information.

Some time ago, after suffering torture at the hands of a manager delivering a course on management techniques, I came across Kenneth Hudson's The Dictionary of Diseased English and knew I must have it. It's a useful defence for those moments when I'm tempted, by that devil sitting on my shoulder, into using the current jargon and management speak; its caustic and often sarcastic definitions of such language are enough to keep any writer on track and out of the quagmire. I particularly enjoy his comments about many of the terms used to describe wines.  My final dictionary dealing with words rather than other research subjects, is the Penguin Rhyming Dictionary; a cheat's aid for those occasions when you want to write some rhyming poetry but the muse fails to deliver.

Then there are those volumes that deal with how we actually use language. Here I'll simply list those I've bought because they each have something useful and pertinent to say about English usage.

Fowler's Modern English Usage - considered by many to be the ultimate authority.

Oxford Dictionary of Current Idiomatic English - occasionally useful for resolving issues at doubt.

Hart's Rules for Compositors and Readers - a handbook to help in the editing process (especially of galley proofs).

Eric Partridge, Usage and Abusage - a great book for dipping into or for trawling when some serious matter of grammar arises.

The Oxford Manual of Style - a book which does what it says on the spine.

And, of course, Thomas Parish's The Grouchy Grammarian, which addresses the 47 most common mistakes in English in a humorous manner.

Next are the other word books no self-respecting writer should be without: the Thesaurus. I have a selection, since each of the collection has something different to add to the lists of alternative words. A word of caution about these handy aids, however; they should be a last resort, following your own hard-thinking process, only when the elusive fails to materialise in your own imagination.

My favourite is the older edition of Roget's Thesaurus, rather amusingly subtitled 'New Edition', which it undoubtedly was when published in 1987. I prefer its layout and method of selection.

I also have the Oxford Compact Thesaurus, a real tome - heaven knows what the comprehensive version looks like!

Hartrampf's Vocabulary Builder deals with the subject in a slightly different manner and is now out of print. I purchased mine through an online second hand book dealer and use it from time to time when one of my others fails to quite satisfy.

The New Nuttall Dictionary of Synonyms and Antonyms serves well for those occasions when you know the word that means the opposite of what you actually need; a valuable member of the club.

So much for technicalities. What about inspiration and instruction? I long ago bought Dorothea Brande's Becoming a Writer. If you buy no other book about the art of writing, buy this one. And do the exercises. It will help you immensely in your development as a wordsmith. The book has been in and out of print since it was first published in 1934. I obtained my 1984 reprint by chance from a second hand book shop. I did all the exercises and return to some of them from time to time to refresh my creative spirit.

Stephen King is a master of his craft and his On Writing is another source of inspiration. I recommend it.

And, to end this section, I'm currently part way through Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way, a book form of her 12 week course on creativity. If the rest of the book proves as valuable as the portion I've so far completed, this could well be the most important book on writing that I've ever read. Watch this space. (You should know that this is subtitled A Spiritual Path to Greater Creativity and she uses the concept of God as a generic term for the external creative force she exhorts her students to connect with. As a committed agnostic, I initially struggled with this concept, but, having understood what she really means by it, I've managed to get over what could have been a block to learning some extraordinarily valuable lessons about myself and my creative spirit).

And, finally, for the purposes of this article, I've a selection of small books dealing with the vagaries of English as she is spoke or writ from across the pond.

American English English American is a small softback that lists the different words that are used for the same things in both versions of our common language. Useful when writing for the US market if you're from the UK, and vice versa, of course.

Christopher Davies' Divided by a Common Language deals quite comprehensively with the differences and similarities of the two versions of the language and is definitely worth a place in your library if you want to write for both sides of the pond.

The Little Red Writing Book, by Brandon Royal, expands on a list of 20 powerful principles of structure, style and readability as understood by US standards.

And, to end this list, The Elements of Style, by William Strunk Jr and E.B. White must be considered an essential guide for good writing aimed at US readers.

I haven't listed the many other reference books I've collected over the years, dealing with topics as diverse as symbolism, natural history and superstition, in more detail and allowing me to write with confidence on a wide range of subjects. I hope that simple enthusiasm for the subject is enough to ensure that writers will always arm themselves with such information.

So, these are some of the books that help me create my books. I'm sure writers and readers have their own lists. Perhaps you'd share your ideas here, by making a comment, so others can share and profit from your experience? Thank you.