Wordplay Wednesday™ March 9, 2016 – Knotty NODUS

Flying the Blast from Your Past flag!

A Knotty Nautical Life

Her day began with a spectacular sunrise off the bow of her silver yacht. Soft, instrumental Celtic tunes caressed the sun’s rays, as a Jonathan Livingston Seagull soared over the bow’s colorful flag.

Ah, she thought, we arrived in port overnight. But wait … she spotted a familiar row of quaint shops along the shore … we were here yesterday! What nautical nodus have we encountered?

More curious than agitated, she walked briskly to the bridge for an explanation …

nodus (nōʹdɘs) n. – complication, difficulty, knotty situation, as in a play. [WW #50]

Or in NCIS: L.A.-speak, it’s a “zoinks” moment! We’ve all had them … days when everything is going smoothly, then … wham! We’re hit with a nodus!

In writer-speak, it’s your story’s conflict moment. Done well, your character won’t know what hit her … until it’s too late.

Of course, the rest of the story excites your readers as you confound them with a maze of pseudo solutions to resolve her life-altering conflict, right down to the Happy Ending … or not.

Sound familiar? Life … is it not a continuous nodus?

'Til next time ... have a wonderful "wordful" week …

                       

@PenchantForPen

@Irishwriter

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Wordplay Wednesday™ March 2, 2016 – Realia is Real

Let’s Get REALIA!

Taking liberty with language is fun, and in this case, it isn’t far from the “real” word.

REALIA (rē āʹlē ɘ, rē aʹlē ɘ) n. – objects from everyday life; used as in teaching a foreign language. [WW#49]

Left, is my realia for table, book, candle …

Italian: tavolo, libro, candela

Hawaiian: papaʻaina, buke, kukui

And that’s our cultural language lesson for the day!

How can realia apply to your “real” life?

Memorabilia: things associated with a noteworthy person or event … or kept for their historical or sentimental value).

Regalia: insignia or decorations of any rank or position; finery.

Reptilia(n): represents … any of a class of typically coldblooded vertebrates having lungs, an entirely bony skeleton, a body covered with scales or horny plates, and a heart with two atria; snakes, lizards, crocodiles. (Reminds me of some people I know!)

Rockin' your writing with beers & cheers!

Or in writer-speak, show, don’t just tell. So grab your realia and venture forth to display life as you see it …  

'Til next time ... have a wonderful "wordful" week …

 

          

@PenchantForPen

@Irishwriter

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Wordplay Wednesday™ February 24, 2016 – ORT

Don’t Snort your Orts!

When I was a wee lass (a better lead-in than “When I was a kid …?”) we were told to “finish every scrap of food” on our plates, because there were “starving children in China.”

Well, we now know the folly of those admonitions. First, we didn’t understand the correlation between our food and the children in China – our good fortune was lost in the worry of not getting any pie; and sadly, there always have been and likely always will be starving children, on every continent.

Second, finishing everything on our plates often led to obesity – if not then, the gobbling habit wreaked havoc on our adult years*  before we realized we needed smaller plates!

On a lighter note, can you imagine the food snorting out our noses if our parents had exclaimed, “Young lady, you finish all the orts on your plate, or no dessert!”

ORT(s) – n. a scrap or fragment of food left from a meal, usu. used in plural. [WW#48]

“Usually used in plural?” When have you usually used that word in anything? Methinks there are thousands of words in the dictionary that could easily be eliminated. Why saddle one meaning with three, four, five or more words to cover it? Think about it, writers …

Wordplay Wednesday™ February 17, 2016 – Algid

Brrrrrr, from one end of the country to the other, our weather temperatures have behaved like a young’un with his first yo-yo.

A few weeks back, even California barely passed the 40-degree mark, yet last week, I enjoyed several balmy, 80+ days under blue skies.

My East Coast friends though, wouldn’t talk weather with me as they stocked up on wood and oil, and hunkered down to watch the snowflakes pile up to their window sills.

Playing yo-yo with our weather, Mother Nature can’t seem to make up her mind (well, she is a woman and entitled to change her mind, of course). Up or down, it never stays in walk-the-dog mode long enough to get used to it.

One day it’s pseudo-summer, the next, it’s an algid 5d. and we’re slip-sliding through the snow. So, what do you think Zoe the cat is thinking on her first venture in the snow?

ALGID (alʹjid) adj. – cold, chilly. [Freakin' freezing!]

Various “experts” in all related sciences – or none – can snap your frozen ear off, debating one side or other of many and sundry global warming issues. But there are three irrefutable facts ...