Alternate words for...

Hi all!

I know I've written a blog on the alternate words for said before, but just had to post it again.  Also, I found some great alternates for 'good and bad,' as well as tone vocabulary (positive and negative). Hope this helps you as it did me!

Alternatives to “Said”:


(Note: I'm sorry I was unable to format the following into columns for easier reading)


added corrected insisted ranted

wept admitted cried laughed

reminded whispered answered

croaked lied replied wondered

argued crowed mentioned requested

yelled asked dared murmured

roared babbled decided muttered

sassed bawled declared named

sighed bet demanded nodded

smiled blurted denied nudged

spoke bragged ended offered

smirked bugged exclaimed ordered

snickered called explained panted

stammered cautioned expressed pleaded

stated chatted fretted praised

stuttered cheered gasped prayed

suggested chuckled greeted promised

tempted coaxed hinted questioned

told confessed informed quoted wailed


Less Common Alternatives to “Said”

admonished droned projected vocalized affirmed enjoined quibbled volunteered alleged enumerated quipped assented espoused quizzed bantered estimated rebuked bemoaned evinced recited berated exhorted rejoiced broached indicated renounced cajoled intoned retorted carped jeered revealed challenged jested scowled cited lamented simpered claimed leered speculated communicated mocked sputtered conceded needled squelched demurred opined stipulated denounced outlined stormed disclosed presented theorized drawled proffered uttered

Alternatives to “Good” and “Bad”

Words to use in place of “Good”:

excellent valuable benefit masterpiece pride gem precious jewel brilliant treasure

model prince angel beneficial profit

improve asset divine heavenly useful advantageous elite edifying genuine moderate

tiptop virtuous favorable dandy well behaved

perfect fresh


Words to use in place of “Bad”:

hurtful ill evil pest plague thorn abuse oppression persecution outrage atrocity torture mischief rotten vicious

misbehave trespass deviate decayed decomposed putrid tainted burden imperfect wicked reprehensible deteriorated corrosive

Tone Vocabulary

Samples:


Positive Tone/Attitude Words

lighthearted, hopeful, exuberant, enthusiastic, confident, cheery, optimistic, loving

amused, elated, sympathetic, compassionate

complimentary, passionate, proud, sunny

bright, shining, brilliant, intelligent

whimsical, bantering, wit


Negative Tone/Attitude Words

Anger:

angry, disgusted, outraged, furious

wrathful, bitter, irritated, indignant

threatening, accusing, condemnatory, inflammatory

Humor/irony/sarcasm:

scornful, disdainful, contemptuous, sarcastic

cynical, condescending, critical, facetious, patronizing, satiric, sardonic, mock-heroic, irreverent, mock-serious, ironic, flippant

Sorrow/fear/worry:

somber, elegiac, melancholic, sad, disturbed, mournful, solemn, serious, apprehensive, concerned, fearful, despairing, gloomy, sober, foreboding, hopeless, staid, resigned

Neutral Tone/Attitude Words

formal objective incredulous nostalgic ceremonial candid shocked reminiscent restrained clinical baffled sentimental objective disbelieving questioning urgent instructive matter-of-fact admonitory learned factual didactic informative authoritative

Resource:

http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/665056-Using-the-Right-Word

Instructing on Proper Grammar

Hello all. I would like to let you in on a great piece I recenty read about grammar. As writers, certainly you do not have to be told that GRAMMAR IS YOUR FRIEND.  I found this information on http://seekerville.blogspot.com/ and I just had to share. 

Although most of us write FICTION, and we break many of the Grammar Rules, we still have to keep to the rules when necessary.

Here are a few important tips:

1. Do not dangle your modifiers.

No, no, no, I am not referring to your overly long beaded necklace that is dragging through your soup. Let me offer some examples.

Incorrect: While feeding the rooster, Ruthy’s new shoes became soiled with chicken poop.

Correct: While feeding the rooster, Ruthy soiled her new shoes with chicken poop.


Incorrect: After searching the house, Mary’s manuscript turned up next to her computer.

Correct: After searching the house, Mary found her manuscript next to her computer.

The point here is that the phrase that begins each of these sentences modifies the subject of the sentence. Ruthy’s shoes obviously were not feeding the rooster, and Mary’s manuscript was not searching the house. Need I say more?

2. Do not confuse possessives with plurals.

Possessives indicate possession. Plurals imply more than one. How much simpler can it be? One of the Grammar Queen’s greatest annoyances is coming upon one of those darling little carved wooden signs indicating ownership of a cabin, boat dock, or some other such charming property. Perhaps you have seen them:

The Dean’s

Welcome to the Tippens’ Cabin

Janet simply needs a sign that states this lovely home is where the Deans live. No need for the possessive form. Therefore the sign should read:

The Deans

As for Missy, she should have informed her sign maker that her sign should read:

Welcome to the Tippenses’ Cabin

Yes, yes, I know the “es” attached to Tippens seems like too much . . . something or other. But trust me, this is the correct way to imply that the entire Tippens family, not just Missy, owns the cabin (unless she spent some of her advance money without telling her husband).

It would also be correct to say:

Welcome to the Tippens Cabin

Here, “Tippens” is simply used as an adjective modifying “Cabin,” so again, the possessive form is not necessary.


3. Do not forget who is calling whom.

Now we come to the eternal who versus whom debate. “Who” is a nominative case pronoun; “whom” is a subjective case pronoun. But what you call them is not nearly as important as how you use them. To simplify, “who” performs the action of the verb; “whom” receives the action of the verb (or in other uses becomes the object of a preposition, which is a subject unto itself).

Even in my tricky little sentence above, “who” is still performing the act of calling “whom,” even though here “who” follows the verb “forget.” Any questions?

Lest we decide the Grammar Queen is becoming slightly too picky, please remember that in naturally written speech (or even in deep POV narration), it is usually perfectly acceptable for your more casual and/or less educated characters to use “who” willy-nilly when perhaps correctly they should really be saying “whom.”

On the other hand, using “whom” incorrectly usually makes even the most intelligent among us appear quite pretentious if not scathingly illiterate.

4. “I wonder” is a statement, not a question, and therefore requires a period, not a question mark.

Incorrect: I wonder where I put my glasses?

Correct: I wonder where I put my glasses.

Or in dialogue, use a comma:

“I wonder where I put my glasses,” Sandra mused.

There are certain variations of “I wonder” phrasing where different punctuation might be required, but the Grammar Queen is already tired of this subject and suggests you invest in a helpful grammar reference book such as Grammatically Correct, by Anne Stilman.

5. In a compound sentence the comma is placed before the conjunction (and, but, or), not after the conjunction.

Incorrect: Debby writes for Love Inspired Suspense but, Cara writes for Thomas Nelson.

Correct: Debby writes for Love Inspired Suspense, but Cara writes for Thomas Nelson.


6. Do not restrict your nonrestrictive descriptors, and vice versa.

Let us begin by explaining the difference between restrictive and nonrestrictive. A restrictive descriptor is essential to the meaning of the sentence, whereas a nonrestrictive descriptor, if removed from the sentence, would not affect the meaning. Nonrestrictive descriptors are set off by commas; restrictive descriptors are not.

Are we clear on this? Perhaps more examples are in order. What is wrong with the following sentence?

Incorrect: Audra’s friend, Tina, is a multiple Golden Heart finalist.

Think . . . think . . .

Alas, if we take this statement as true, it means poor Audra has only one friend, the tireless and loyal Tina. But of course, we know Audra has many, many friends. Thus the sentence should have no commas:

Correct: Audra’s friend Tina is a multiple Golden Heart finalist.


The same is true when mentioning a spouse:

Incorrect: One day Myra hopes to meet Pam’s husband Orlando [name changed to protect the innocent].

We know for a fact that Pam is not a bigamist, which means we must insert a comma in the above sentence so that it reads:

Correct: One day Myra hopes to meet Pam’s husband, Orlando.

And one more example, this time regarding restrictive and nonrestrictive clauses:

Incorrect: The avid fan, who accosted Glynna at her book signing, was quickly wrestled to the ground by Cheryl.

It should be clear to anyone who has read Glynna’s books that she has more than one avid fan. Therefore the sentence above should contain no commas.

Correct: The avid fan who accosted Glynna at her book signing was quickly wrestled to the ground by Cheryl.

Hope this helps!

Great Website for Online Coupons!

I have been using this website for years when purchasing items online.  There are even some printable coupons.  You may already know about this one, but here it is:

http://www.bradsdeals.com/

Great website!  Enjoy!

Simple Spiced Zucchini Bread

Okay, what do you do when you have zucchinis taking over your counterspace?  I've fried them and roasted them, but I needed some other way to eat them.  I've not always been a big fan of zucchini bread, but when I baked this one over the weekend and tried it, I had to share the recipe!  It was so delicious and moist.  (If you have some new recipes on cucumbers that would be great, LOL!) 

Ingredients:

3 cups of all-purpose flour (unbleached)
1 Tbsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. ground all-spice
2 cups sugar
1 cup butter, softened
3 eggs
1 Tbsp. vanilla
2 medium (2-3 cups) zucchini, chopped finely (I used my food processor)--you can shred yours, but I prefer smaller pieces
1/2 cup walnuts (optional)--I don't like nuts in my bread and it still came out super moist!

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease bottom only of 2 (8x4-inch) loaf pans, set aside.
2. Combine flour, cinnamon, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and all-spice in large bowl, set aside.
3. Cream suger and butter together.  Add one egg at a time.  Add vanilla.  Continue to beat on medium speed, scraping bowl often, until smooth.  Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture.  Continue beating until well mixed.  Mixture will be thick.  Stir in zucchini and nuts.
4. Spread batter into prepared pans.  Bake 55-65 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool 10 minutes in pans.  Remove from pans.  Cool completely.  Store in refrigerator.

Write On Con, August 10-12, 2010

I found a cool conference called Write On Con held Tuesday-Thursday, August 10-12 that is entirely online--and it's FREE!  Has anyone heard of this?

Researching Agents

How does a writer go about finding an agent. Here is a short list of sites Author Jill Corcoran compiled for the SCBWI Agent Workshop she held in Bakersfield, CA last fall in 2009:


Websites for researching Agents:

• AgentQuery : http://www.agentquery.com/default.aspx
• Absolute Write: http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/
• Verla Kay’s Message Board: http://www.verlakay.com/boards/index.php
• Writer’s Digest Guide to Literary Agents Blog http://www.guidetoliteraryagents.com/blog/
• Literary Rambles (Agent In-Depth Reviews) http://caseylmccormick.blogspot.com/
• 1000 Literary Agents http://www.1000literaryagents.com/literary-agents-us.php

Other Blogs that might be helpful--

http://caseylmccormick.blogspot.com/2009/05/researching-literary-agents-part-i.html

http://caseylmccormick.blogspot.com/2009/05/researching-literary-agents-part-ii.html

http://caseylmccormick.blogspot.com/2009/07/researching-literary-agents-part-iii.html

http://caseylmccormick.blogspot.com/2009/08/agent-spotlight-jill-corcoran.html

Check out the agent (or publisher) before you query:

Preditors and Editors: http://www.anotherealm.com/prededitors/pubagent.htm

There are lots of agent interviews, vlogs, blogs, twitters, etc all over the net. Google them and have fun researching.  You can find them on author's websites as well.

Hope this helps!

I found this information on Jill Corcoran Books' blog.

Teaching Your Child the Golden Rule

I never really thought about the Golden Rule before I had children. I mean, I was nice to others, in hopes that they would be nice to me in return, but I never really put much thought into it. Then, I sold skin care products for awhile where their motto was “Live by the Golden Rule.” So, there it was again. Still, I didn’t really take heed to it. That is until I had kids.


Watching my children grow-up, I saw just how important it was to live by the Golden Rule. Not only did they watch what I did, but how they treated others became very important to me. I want my kids to respect others, treat others like they would want to be treated and be compassionate. I can’t tell you how important it is. It kills me when my children are mean to each other, let alone other people. I am constantly telling them how they should treat others.

I believe that if we treat others rudely, it will come back to bite us in the rump - what comes around, goes around, that sort of thing. Well, as my child got older, I learned that he was a bully in kindergarten and then, in first grade - this tiny, little kid was being mean to other children in his class and didn’t care at all. I had talks with him, and he’d promise to be nice, but then he’d go back to school and change. When he went into third grade, mind you, he was still small for his age. Suddenly, he was coming home from school, crying, saying that he was getting picked on. Of course, I kept what I was really thinking it to myself. I didn’t tell him that I thought how he treated others in the past was coming back to haunt him. Instead, I turned it around and made him see how horrible it made him feel. Anyway, lesson learned, thank goodness.

It’s hard as parents to watch our children go through tough times, but sometimes these times are good learning tools. I still tell my kids about the “Golden Rule.” I just hope they become good citizens when they grow up.

Taken from one of my blogs:
http://buzz.prevention.com/community/lola-writer/teaching-your-child-the-golden-rule