The Random Thread

[Craig Wallwork]

Agrees with the above..."And The Ass Saw The Angel" was fantastic...IS fantastic. Gorgeous language. I liked "The Death Of Bunny Monroe," but it wasn't the same.

Makes me so happy to hear that, Shiney. "Mah innards" was churning throughout that damn book. It influenced my new novel a lot, too. The Death of Bunny was, one first read, poles apart from the Ass, yet, where the surface level of Ass was so rich and dense, I think with Bunny, Cave cleverly implanted it all unner the skin of the story. And it's safe to say I have been to Butlins holiday camp and there is no better analogy of Hell than that place.

[RichardThomas]

sounds like a great editor

[C.W. LaSart]

Imagine one of these dumb-it-down editors around to destroy works like Poe's "The Raven". I think there is a line we have to establish as writers when it comes to editing. It's individual but at what point is the integrity of our work destroyed?

She is really great about disagreeing but letting me have my way-I give in on little things so I can be insistent about the big ones. We truly have a harmonious balance.

[KT Wagner]

What about beautiful words you love to use? Words that aren't necessarily thesaurus words, but have a beauty in the written language. Like sapphire or radiant.

I'm partial to words that roll off the tongue in harmony with their meaning. I think that is the source of much of the beauty. Sapphire and radiant are two of them.

Others,

Cacophony rampage crescendo mesmerize repugnant

[KT Wagner]

Sheesh-my editor digs me for using words like distended and hazing-says people won't know what they mean. Morsicant-they would die!

I am planning to use it as a character name. :-)

[Shiney]

Agrees with the above..."And The Ass Saw The Angel" was fantastic...IS fantastic. Gorgeous language. I liked "The Death Of Bunny Monroe," but it wasn't the same.

[Craig Wallwork]

I like that, too. My favorite example is Nick Cave's "And the Ass Saw the Angel".

One of favourite books of all time. LOVED IT! his prose had its own rhythm, like it was a song that lasted 250 pages. Man, I could talk about that book till the cows come home. Sadly, it's late here in the UK and i have to be up at 5am. Still, thanks Terry for ending my night with a smile.

[TerryE]

I like to come across words I don't know, I look them up and then I have learned something

I like that, too. My favorite example is Nick Cave's "And the Ass Saw the Angel". I don't know if any of you have read it, but when I read it I wrote down the words I didn't know on a legal pad. There was a word I had never heard every couple pages. I thought the man had an incredible vocabulary or was extremely gifted at making up words, since all of them seemed to have proper roots to be English words. I eventually filled 4 pages on my legal pad and found very few of them in my dictionary. It wasn't until a year or so later, when I had access to the OED online for a while, that I discovered all of the words were real or at least derived properly from their etymological roots. Priceless. And an the book is a great read on top of that.

[C.W. LaSart]

I find myself not using many flourish-y words. I feel it obfuscates the story so much so that many may opt to defenestrate the book as opposed to completing it

Now that's funny!

[RJHubbard53]

I find myself not using many flourish-y words. I feel it obfuscates the story so much so that many may opt to defenestrate the book as opposed to completing it

[C.W. LaSart]

I love my editor a ton! She is FANTASTIC! This is one of the few things we disagree on, but it's okay. We always work it out. I like to come across words I don't know, I look them up and then I have learned something

[Draven Ames]

What about beautiful words you love to use? Words that aren't necessarily thesaurus words, but have a beauty in the written language. Like sapphire or radiant.

[Draven Ames]

People won't know "hazing?" Really?

[Craig Wallwork]

Sorry. Edited.

[TerryE]

I tend to draw a lot from the Internet. Most of my stories lean toward fact, or medical anomalies, so it's difficult not to reference. Though, I love it when i can just write a story using my own knowledge and nothing more. Shame i don't know that much.

Research and reference are fine, but the point he was making was to not alter the flow of your work to stop and look up something. All that stuff should be done before you start for the day, or after that day's draft. And my point was that I agree with avoiding the thesaurus.