When I was a kid, I used to babysit for cash. One of my regular clients was a neighbor named Kandi Korn. That’s how my mother would say her name whenever she called, “Kandi Korn called for you, Kandi Korn is on the phone, Kandi Korn wants you to babysit Friday.” She was the only Kandi I knew, and the only Mrs. Korn, it was weird that my mother always said both of her names. I think maybe she just liked saying it because it was so unusual. Of course I’ve never forgotten her, because of her name. Ironically her kids ALWAYS wanted to play Candy Land. I used to beg them to let me read them a story or play anything else, nope, we played Candy Land over and over. Thinking about Kandi Korn made me recall that I actually had several childhood friends that we always called by their first and last name. When my daughter was little everyone was named Jessica, for me it was Lisa. I had a friend named Lisa Bertman, Schwartz, Lounders, Macarena, Thomas, Lara, Abrue, Bear, and one who spelled her name Lesa. We always called them by their first and last names to avoid confusion. I was closest with Lisa Bertman, unfortunately she passed away too young at 43. I have spoken to a few of the others over the years and I still say their first and last name. It just becomes like one long word after a while. I had a slumber party once, that four Lisa's attended after the first hour my parents just went with, “Hey you.”
I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, maybe not yet, but I have a thing with words and names. For example, my WIP, VioleNt. It’s a horror story about a young woman named Violet. If you add an “N” her name becomes Violent, or in this case VioleNt. The fact that you can add just one letter to a sweet name and make it worthy of a horror story makes me happy for some weird reason. I enjoy playing with words and when words can be manipulated to mean something ominous when they should be innocuous, is my favorite. I can’t give away all of my secrets, but if you pay attention when reading my stories, you’ll find some of my plays with words. I also enjoy when you can have a name like Kandi Korn who is a nice woman, literally a candy, and a metal band (Korn), with the same name.
Words that are spelled the same and may or may not be pronounced the same but have different meanings are called Homographs. For example: WIND “There’s a strong wind blowing today.” Or “I need to wind my watch.” Words that are spelled the same and pronounced the same with different meanings are Homonyms. For example: ROW “I’m seated in row 10.” Or “I’m going to row back to shore.” There are also Homophones, this is when a word sounds the same but is spelled differently and has a different meaning, such as: ONE/WON “I found one more cookie in the box.” Or “He won the race with the fastest time.” Homophones are definitely a thing for me, I’m a little bit of a grammar cop, and it makes me crazy when people use the wrong their, there, or they’re. But at the same time, I love homophones. The fact that there’s three different forms of YOUR/YOU’RE/YORE, makes me smile, as long as they’re used correctly of course.
I use a great app for synonyms when I’m trying to not repeat a word. It’s free to download and use. WORDHIPPO. It will also help with other uses of the word and to define words. You can type in a word, and it will give you synonyms for the various forms of the word. You can get a synonym for the word whether it’s used as a verb, adjective, noun, present tense/past tense, etc. It’s super helpful when you’re stuck on a word, it'll spark something at the very least.
Do you remember all of this stuff from Language Arts 101? You should have learned the basics in elementary school, but who can keep track of all of these terms? Thankfully we have the internet today and you can just Google everything. We used to have to look in a dictionary, often the giant book that weighed more than me as a kid. If you didn’t know how to spell a word? Yikes! It would take forever flipping through the thin pages covered in tiny type trying to figure out how to spell it, let alone define it. The dictionary is also filled with symbols for the various forms and uses of the word as well as pronunciation. We used to have to figure out how to say a word, often without any help. Now, you can just have your phone pronounce it for you. With all of these advances, not to mention the many editing tools like Grammarly and Writing Pro, there’s no reason not to have a well edited book. Not to say these apps are perfect and you won’t have any errors, but you can get pretty close using these apps and the internet. You should still hire an editor if you are able to afford it because there’s nothing like a real editor for a well written book.
I recently happened across a great editing service who has an extremely educational BLOG. They also offer editing services which I haven’t used or priced, but their blog is fantastic. You don’t have to subscribe to their blog, but you should read as many articles or books as you can about writing, story structure, grammar, etc. The link for their blog is: https://www.groundcreweditorial.com/blog
Another helpful writing tool is a method called, Show, Don’t Tell. Here’s a couple great books on the topic:
Understanding Show, Don't Tell: (And Really Getting It) (Skill Builders Series Book 1) https://a.co/d/7OLvmjI
Show, Don't Tell: How to write vivid descriptions, handle backstory, and describe your characters’ emotions (Writers’ Guide Series) Show, Don't Tell: How to write vivid descriptions, handle backstory, and describe your characters’ emotions (Writers’ Guide Series) https://a.co/d/iXO2dks
You may be familiar with this concept already, but it never hurts to go over it once in a while to make sure it becomes a habit in your writing. There’s much discussion about this method on the writing groups on Facebook. The thing is, there’re times when you need to tell, and I think people get confused about when you should tell and when you should show. These books clearly explain this concept and make it very simple. I also recommend finding some writing groups on Facebook to stalk or participate with, depending on your personality and comfort level. Just be aware, some of the groups who claim to be supportive have members who will shred any writing samples you post. The good ones require feedback to be kind and constructive and they don’t allow bullying. They also only allow feedback when the author asks for it. Read the ABOUT section for the group and their RULES before you join. I especially enjoy groups focused on my genre. When I speak to people outside of romance, they don’t know what RH or MC mean. But you do, if you read my blog about acronyms! (Indie Author Journey, Part 26 E.N. Chanting)
I hope this information has been helpful and I hope you’re making your dreams come true writing your novel! (Did you notice my homophone use here?) As always, thanks so much for reading, now get to typing!