Word of the Week
Recently the internet writing community has been buzzing about the allegedly increasing use of cliches in writing. For a few of the more interesting discussions see Sean Lindsay’s Poll: The Worst Cliche over at 101 Reasons to Stop Writing (a site worth a visit in its own right) or try out Steven Morgan Friedman’s Cliche Finder (the cliche-finding tool you’ve always wanted!).
In an effort to add my own ripple of change to this supposed trend, and also because I just love rediscovering a great word, I’m starting a new tradition on the blog: the Word of the Week. One word, seven days to let it enrich your writing.
Read the word. Say it out loud. Think about your five senses. What images come to mind? What smells? Why those specific ones? What about feelings? How can one word evoke such feeling in you? Or if you feel nothing, why are you indifferent? Maybe you don’t like this word. Why?
This week’s word is… keen.
One word, two meanings. Bonus!
Alternative one: Keen the adjective
- Very sharp, as a knife.
- Cutting; piercing, as wit.
- Vivid; pungent.
- Having or exhibiting sharpness or penetration
- Acute: keen insight.
- Exceptionally intelligent.
- Characterized by intensity: a keen appetite.
- Informal impatient; eager: keen to be off.
Alternative two: Keen the noun
- A wailing cry; dirge.
All definitions taken from The New International Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary of the English Language.
My personal reaction to the word is visual. A woman in a long white dress kneels on a smooth rock ledge while the rain batters her. The storm rages and the wind howls drowning out any sound the woman might be making, but even if it had been quiet and sunny no sound would be heard. With one hand she clutches a small object to her chest as she rocks forward, trying in vain to let loose the cry of pain that is locked in her throat.
That’s my unedited reaction. And what a cliche it is! What is your reaction to the word? If it’s as cliche as mine, I challenge you to think of a more original context for the word.
This little exercise points out something I find common in my own writing. If I write my story according to the first images that come to mind for a particular scene, I end up with something like what you have just read. To combat this trap, I have an exercise I repeat relentlessly. Anytime I’m writing a scene and I feel familiar, sweet images coaxing me down the path of mediocrity, I stop and come up with at least four different possible directions for the scene. Eighty percent of the time I come up with a much better alternative than my first instinct, something that sparks my interest and starts new creative juices flowing strong.
So, think about the word keen and find something new to do with it. Surprise yourself.
