Hiya, writers & frenz,
Good to see ya back for more writing practice & play-therapy!
And snacks! ...assuming youâre like me and feel like the best words have voluptuous flavors all their own. :)
But before we get going noshing, Tara the Antisocial Social Worker has a story coming out in the Hidden Villains: Betrayed anthology, and says that one of the best sources for calls for submissions is https://www.teamandmore.org/open-calls. Exciting!
For anyone not seeing it yet âI hadnâtâ hereâs dictionary.comâs new words/phrases for winter 2023. Two in the list had to do with fiction!
fan service noun. material added to a work of fiction for the perceived or actual purpose of appealing to the audience, used especially of material that is risqué or sexual in nature.
Example: The scene where the fan favorite and the new character meet is pure fan service.
climate fiction (cli-fi) noun. a genre of fiction, encompassing both speculative and realist works, in which climate change and other environmental concerns are major themes. Also called cli-fi.
And hereâs new for winter 2024. One noun I like is enshittificationâš. Related to an adjective I love: oisgephukte (Yinglish, from a Yiddish-speaking friend years ago).
Also on the 2024 list, to my surprise, since Iâve seen it used kinda for decades:
cozy adjective. relating to a genre of mystery stories with little suspense, explicit violence, or sexual content, often also having amateur sleuths and idyllic, intimate settings.
In this context, cozy is also sometimes used as a noun to refer to such a story itself, as in I started out reading cozies and moved on to the hard-boiled detective novels.
and this was surprising, also around for quite some while:
Bechdel test noun. a test of gender stereotyping and inequality in fiction, having a number of variations and used especially with movies, based on whether the work includes at least two fairly important female characters who talk to each other about something besides a man.
The first recorded uses of the term Bechdel test come from between 2005 and 2010, but the concept was introduced by cartoonist Alison Bechdel in a 1985 comic strip.
Oops, that link is no longer good. Try this one from wik.
The Bechdel test (/ËbÉkdÉl/ BEK-dÉl),[1] also known as the Bechdel-Wallace test, is a test to measure the representation of women in film and other fiction. The test asks whether a work features at least two female characters who have a conversation about something other than a man. In some iterations, the requirement that the two female characters have names is added.[2]
The test is used as an indicator of the active presence of women in fiction. A work of fiction passing or failing the test does not necessarily indicate the overall representation of women in the work. Instead, the test is used as an indicator for the active presence (or lack thereof) of women in fiction, and to call attention to gender inequality in fiction.
The test is named after the American cartoonist Alison Bechdel, in whose 1985 comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For the test first appeared. Bechdel credited the idea to her friend Liz Wallace and the writings of Virginia Woolf. Originally meant as "a little lesbian joke in an alternative feminist newspaper", according to Bechdel,[3] the test became more widely discussed in the 2000s, as a number of variants and tests inspired by it emerged.
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This next word opens up innumerable possibilities for other places. Whether theyâve already got some or not!
Scouser noun. Informal. a resident or native of Liverpool, England.
This other nickname for Liverpudlians comes from the word Scouse, a name for the Liverpool dialect [and] Scouse itself comes from a shortening of lobscouse, a type of sailorâs stew...
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Global Scouse Day
In 2008 the first "Global Scouse Day" was organised, and at 2020 continues, as an annual event every 28 February. Bars, cafes and restaurants in Liverpool and around the world put scouse on the menu for the day, raising funds for charities.[28][29]
And some old words and phrases!
Such as â Gigglemug someone who is always smiling â Fly rink: a bald head â Happy cabbage: a big chunk of money spent frivolously (df. âretail therapyâ) â Rellies: relatives â Yeet! contrast with hoick â Brabble âto argue stubbornly about trifles.â from the Dutch, first recorded in English in the late 1400s â Flub the dub: evade oneâs duty (and as flubadub: bunkum, balderdash ⊠also a Buffalo Bob puppet character) â Ultracrepidarian
One who gives their opinions on things they donât know about. This very old word derives from a Greek story: a shoemaker showed the famous Greek painter, Apelles of Kos, that he had drawn a sandal wrong. When Apelles fixed the sandal, the excited shoemaker began critiquing other parts of the painting. Apelles said to him, âSutor, ne ultra crepidum,â or, âShoemaker, not above the sandal.â The term âultracrepidarianismâ became popular in Britain in the 19th century.
and â <big> Scurryfunge: The act of hastily cleaning before a guest arrives!!</big></big>
Resource highly recommended by strawbale and dconrad: A Word A Day from wordsmith.org.
dconrad adds:
Some other nice words at the Haggard Hawks word of the year post (for 2022; there isn't one for 2023 yet).
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<big><big>CHALLENGES</big></big> one or more (or anything similar!)
Comment one or some new or old or slang or colloquial terms youâre especially fond of. :)
Invent or borrow a word or phrase and use in a dialogue scene in a way that gives the reader at least a vague feel for the meaning[s] or intention[s].
Or, in a scene of dialogue, have a character use a word for what it might hypothetically mean, because of how it looks, or its roots/derivation, instead of how itâs normally used.
Write On! will be a regular Thursday night diary (8 pm Eastern, 5 pm Pacific) until it isnât.
Before signing a contract with any agent or publisher, please be sure to check them out on Preditors and Editors (at FB their last post seems to be in October 2023) Absolute Write, Critters.org, and/or Writer Beware.
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I gotta remember to put the green barrel out tonight. Donât let me forget!!!