Run (Total, Smuggle, Liquified ...) to the Thesaurus

I'm the first to admit that I adore the thesaurus ... or more specifically Thesaurus.com ... because there are many times I just can't think up an alternate word. I'm a stickler for variety, and hate to use the same word repeatedly on a page. It truly is boring for the reader, and you don't want a disinterested reader. Sure, there are times when I purposely use repetition of a word to drive home a point, or if my main character is in distress and thinking the same thought over and over. But, that's an intentional decision.

I recently bounced over to my Thesaurus tab (yes, it's always open in my browser when I'm editing) and saw that there is one word with 179 entries.

The word?

Run.

Here are just a few of those synonyms ...

verb (used without object)

1. to go quickly by moving the legs more rapidly than at a walk and in such a manner that for an instant in each step all or both feet are off the ground.

2. to move with haste; act quickly: Run upstairs and get the iodine.

3. to depart quickly; take to flight; flee or escape: to run from danger.

verb (used with object)

53. to move or run along (a surface, way, path, etc.): Every morning he ran the dirt path around the reservoir to keep in condition. She ran her fingers over the keyboard.

54. to traverse (a distance) in running: He ran the mile in just over four minutes.

55. to perform, compete in, or accomplish by or as by running: to run a race; to run an errand.

noun

98. an act or instance, or a period of running: a five-minute run before breakfast.

99. a hurrying to or from some point, as on an errand: a run to reach the store before it closes.

100. a fleeing, especially in great haste; flight: a run from the police who were hot on his trail.

101. a running pace: The boys set out at a run.

And the list goes on!

Do you use the thesaurus? Any other writing tools always at your fingertips?

Image Source: SXC

Writer Wednesday: Fear

I recently read a wonderful blog post by the lovely and brilliant Kristen Lamb. I love her posts, and subscribe to her feed via email (and I highly recommend you do the same!).

The particular post I'm speaking of today is here.

In that post, she tells a personal story about fear, but then talks about fear as a writer. About how when something about a story or an idea scares you--in that I'm-not-sure-I-can-actually-pull-this-off kind of way--you should do it.

I'm feeling that fear with my current WIP. I'm revising it, and trying to figure out the best way to tell this story.  It's scaring the crap out of me, because I'm not sure what that way is. And I'm not sure I can pull it off.

Sadly, I don't have any advice about how to conquer this fear. LOL. I think, as Kristen says in her post: "Sometimes our only way out is through." I think I'm going to just have to do it. Try different things until I find the right way.

Dan Yaccarino was a speaker at the SCBWI Florida Regional Conference I attended a couple of weeks ago. His talk was about saying yes. He told us about how numerous times in his career, he'd been asked to do something he didn't know how to do and wasn't sure he COULD do, but he said YES anyway. And he found a way to do it.

So that's me today. I'm going to keep going and find a way to make it work.

When have you stretched yourself (in writing, or anything else)? Tell me in the comments!

TBR Tuesday--UNWIND by Neal Shusterman

This is a book I've already read and wanted to share with you as a 'I highly recommend.'

UNWIND is twisty, turny, fast-paced, never boring read. A completely different Dystopian thrill with a cool cover.

 Connor, Risa, and Lev are running for their lives.

The Second Civil War was fought over reproductive rights. The chilling resolution: Life is inviolable from the moment of conception until age thirteen. Between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, however, parents can have their child "unwound," whereby all of the child's organs are transplanted into different donors, so life doesn't technically end. Connor is too difficult for his parents to control. Risa, a ward of the state is not enough to be kept alive. And Lev is a tithe, a child conceived and raised to be unwound. Together, they may have a chance to escape and to survive.

And after you read UNWIND, then might as well get the sequel, which I've also read--UNWHOLLY. Sequels usually scare me. I hate loving book one only to be disappointed with book two. Such is not the case here. UNWHOLLY builds on the concept, enriching it, instead of repeating the same plot. Needless to say, I love it. 

Plus, another cool cover. 

 

Thanks to Connor, Lev, and Risa—and their high-profile revolt at Happy Jack Harvest Camp—people can no longer turn a blind eye to unwinding. Ridding society of troublesome teens while simultaneously providing much-needed tissues for transplant might be convenient, but its morality has finally been brought into question. However, unwinding has become big business, and there are powerful political and corporate interests that want to see it not only continue, but also expand to the unwinding of prisoners and the impoverished.

Cam is a product of unwinding; made entirely out of the parts of other unwinds, he is a teen who does not technically exist. A futuristic Frankenstein, Cam struggles with a search for identity and meaning and wonders if a rewound being can have a soul. And when the actions of a sadistic bounty hunter cause Cam’s fate to become inextricably bound with the fates of Connor, Risa, and Lev, he’ll have to question humanity itself.

Rife with action and suspense, this riveting companion to the perennially popular Unwind challenges assumptions about where life begins and ends—and what it means to live.

Information brought to you from Goodreads.