Jan Marquart's Blog - Posts Tagged "thesauras"
Words
Years ago I thought it was cheating to use a thesauras. That probably sounds silly, but I that a thesauras was like a cheat sheet and I wanted my writing to be original, creative and MINE.
But, in a writing workshop one winter, I sat with 60 writers who called out the tools they wouldn't do without. I was stunned when several stated they couldn't or wouldn't sit to write without a thesauras.
Listening to them threw me back on my own crazy thinking. At the time, I believed I had to depend solely on my own wisdown, learn from the bottom up so to speak and I wouldn't dream of using a book that told me the better word to use. Didn't good writers come up with everything on their own? Wasn't that an innate talent?
Now I can only laugh at myself. I had a strange and dysfunctional belief that the only way I was going to become a good writer was to dig deep and do it alone. Alone? Really? Then it dawned on me: I was raised believing that if I needed help I was deficient or weak. Are any of you relating to this? In fact, with any craft, craftsmen use tools -- tools refine the creative process. I thought I had to carve my own path with stone and chisel.
Over decades of furiously writing, I have learned that this pattern of thinking created more problems than it was worth, ones that I could have sidestepped if only I had opened and allowed myself to receive the tools of the masters. But there again, another old belief pattern of thought: it is better to give than receive. In my mind receiving help meant I was selfish in taking the time and energy of others and there was no way I wanted to be selfish. Everyone knows selfishness is a negative attribute.
I've met many writers during the years who wouldn't let anyone comment on their work because they too wanted to present their raw and original work. Then when agents wouldn't accept their manuscripts because they needed more work or had major errors in plot and characterization, the writers went home and wept. In so many ways, writing has healed, opened up and changed my life. It hasn't been just the written word; it has been the psychological, spiritual, emotional and mental process of it all. Being a writer demands self confrontation.
Accepting help or not has to do with your belief about yourself in the world and your relationship to it as well as to yourself. Yes, write your story with your own thoughts -- then let someone help you find diamond in the charcoal. That's what my thesauras now does for me. I too, at this point, depend on that handy dandy little book. It is a joy of a helper and it emboldens me to study and learn new words.
Just in case you want to learn a new word everyday, I thought I'd share this link with you.
http://www.wordsmith.org/words/today....
Keep the pen moving,
But, in a writing workshop one winter, I sat with 60 writers who called out the tools they wouldn't do without. I was stunned when several stated they couldn't or wouldn't sit to write without a thesauras.
Listening to them threw me back on my own crazy thinking. At the time, I believed I had to depend solely on my own wisdown, learn from the bottom up so to speak and I wouldn't dream of using a book that told me the better word to use. Didn't good writers come up with everything on their own? Wasn't that an innate talent?
Now I can only laugh at myself. I had a strange and dysfunctional belief that the only way I was going to become a good writer was to dig deep and do it alone. Alone? Really? Then it dawned on me: I was raised believing that if I needed help I was deficient or weak. Are any of you relating to this? In fact, with any craft, craftsmen use tools -- tools refine the creative process. I thought I had to carve my own path with stone and chisel.
Over decades of furiously writing, I have learned that this pattern of thinking created more problems than it was worth, ones that I could have sidestepped if only I had opened and allowed myself to receive the tools of the masters. But there again, another old belief pattern of thought: it is better to give than receive. In my mind receiving help meant I was selfish in taking the time and energy of others and there was no way I wanted to be selfish. Everyone knows selfishness is a negative attribute.
I've met many writers during the years who wouldn't let anyone comment on their work because they too wanted to present their raw and original work. Then when agents wouldn't accept their manuscripts because they needed more work or had major errors in plot and characterization, the writers went home and wept. In so many ways, writing has healed, opened up and changed my life. It hasn't been just the written word; it has been the psychological, spiritual, emotional and mental process of it all. Being a writer demands self confrontation.
Accepting help or not has to do with your belief about yourself in the world and your relationship to it as well as to yourself. Yes, write your story with your own thoughts -- then let someone help you find diamond in the charcoal. That's what my thesauras now does for me. I too, at this point, depend on that handy dandy little book. It is a joy of a helper and it emboldens me to study and learn new words.
Just in case you want to learn a new word everyday, I thought I'd share this link with you.
http://www.wordsmith.org/words/today....
Keep the pen moving,
