Weather Phobias

by Lisa Binion

Lately, the news has been filled with accounts of capricious acts of weather. Powerful weather phenomena are fascinating to watch, yet terrifying because of the destruction they leave behind. The fierceness of tornadoes and hurricanes leave one speechless and amazed. The beauty of lightning fills one with admiration for the hand that guides this streak of electricity to its destination. Each accompanying boom of thunder reminds us of the One in control of it all.

Then there are the calming weather phenomena. The gentle rains that water the earth, the snow that blankets the ground, the cooling breezes, and the clouds that form pictures for those with an imagination.

Phobias exist for all types of weather phenomena. In this article, I will share information about six of them.

Anemophobia is the fear of air, wind, or air drafts. Those with this phobia fear that wind has the ability to blow away their personal identity and belongings.

Chionophobia is the fear of snow. Some people with this phobia simply hate snow of any kind and amount. Others fear being snowbound. I don’t like being snowbound, but those with chionopohobia fear it and won’t venture out in the snow at all for fear of being stranded. Even just a forecast of a terrible winter storm can cause panic and feelings of helplessness.

Lilapsophobia is the fear of tornadoes and/or hurricanes. Some fear of these fierce storms is perfectly natural when you consider the damage and destruction that they bring. Those afflicted with this phobia could possibly have lived through an extremely fierce hurricane or tornado. Think about the survivors of the damaging tornado that struck Joplin, Missouri. How have they been affected by this terrible weather phenomenon? For those who have survived such a catastrophe, even just a forecast of such an event occurring can bring on severe anxiety attacks.

Nephophobia is the fear of clouds. Hard to believe that a person could be afraid of the white, fluffy things in the sky, but remember, they aren’t always so innocent looking. When filled with rain, they grow dark and sinister looking. Just pictures of clouds have the ability to send into distress those afflicted with nephophobia.

Ombrophobia is defined as a persistent, irrational fear of rain. Has anyone ever told you that “you will catch your death” if you go out in the rain? Maybe you were told that going out in the rain would make you sick. Some people take these words to heart and become really depressed when it rains The majority of people don’t like being rained on, unless maybe they are coming out of a long, dry drought. But not liking being rained on and having a phobia of being rained on are two completely different things.

Astraphobia is the fear of thunder and lightning. My indoor dog has astraphobia. Anytime she hears thunder, she heads straight for the bathroom and climbs in the tub. One of my outdoor dogs definitely does not have this phobia; he tries to leap up and attack the flashes of light and the loud booms. People who have this phobia may hide in the basement during a thunderstorm or seek shelter in an inside room, such as the bathroom. Attempts to block out the noise may be attempted by turning up the volume of the television or stereo. Closing the curtains or blinds may be done in an attempt to block out the brilliant flashes of light. Since a person with this fear would not want to get caught out in a thunderstorm, an astraphobiac may also be obsessed with checking the weather forecast.

Shannon has been afraid of fierce storms since she was a little girl. On vacation with her parents, she became separated from them while hiking up to the bridge at Natural Bridge. Before she was reunited with her parents, the sky grew dark and a fierce storm developed. Caught out in the open, she watched the fierce lightning strike the trees around her and cause them to fall as the thunder boomed. Her only comfort was the stuffed animal she kept with her at all times. Now an adult, she has made plans to go camping with her friends. She has been assured by the forecasts that absolutely no storms are possible. But the weather forecasters get it wrong sometimes. The first night out is clear and beautiful. The second evening, though, is not so calm. As the winds pick up and the rain begins to come down gently, Shannon is ready to run for home, but something prevents her from leaving. What prevents her from going and how does she handle being stuck out once again in a fierce storm?

You can use the above story line and adapt it to just about any weather phobia mentioned in this article. Or you can make up one of your own. The most important thing is for you to have fun with it and practice your writing.

Animal Phobias

by Lisa Binion

I am surrounded by animals. They make my life so enjoyable that I cannot imagine living without them. There are people, though, who live their life as far away as they can from certain animals. For some reason, animal phobias tend to be more common in females than in males.

Those suffering from cynophobia have an irrational fear of dogs. This is not a phobia that normally comes from something fearful during childhood occurring with a dog, such as being chased, attacked, or bitten. To the person who has this phobia, it isn’t irrational. This person may avoid visiting friends and family members who have dogs, may barricade herself in yards, or cross the street to avoid coming in contact with a dog.

Say your character has cynophobia as a result of being attacked by a dog when she was just a little girl. She has done everything possible to avoid contact with them since. Then she comes home from work to find a puppy in a basket on her porch. Obviously it is a present from someone. How does she react? Does she keep the puppy or call to have it taken away? If she keeps the puppy, does it help her to overcome her fear of dogs?

Ailurophobia is an irrational fear of cats. Why would someone fear a cat? Most of them are cute and cuddly. The person could fear cats in general or fear being scratched or bitten by a feline. Black cats (my favorite color of cats) have a reputation of being evil and associated with witches, so their evil reputation could be feared.

There are many Halloween stories written where black cats get a bad rap. Edgar Allen Poe wrote “The Black Cat”. Stories like this where cats are not depicted as loving may be the root of ailurophobia for some.

Try writing something different about Halloween. Write a story about a lady with ailurophobia. This phobia developed in her a child because she read so many stories about how wicked and evil cats, especially black ones, are. It is Halloween and she is taking the trash out when she sees a black cat running down her road as fast as it can go. The cat is being chased by a gang of kids. She can tell that their intentions for this cat are not good. Though she is deathly afraid of this cat, she has a good heart and cannot bear the thought of these kids harming the animal. What does she do?

Someone who has murophobia, a fear of mice and rats, would probably want to have some cats around to keep their residence free from what they fear. This person also has something in common with elephants. Did you know that elephants have murophobia? How could something so big be afraid of something so small? It isn’t actually the mouse they fear, it is the noise the mouse makes before he can be seen, for elephants have a natural fear of nearby noises when they cannot tell what is making them. This phobia in people may stem from the fact that mice and rats carry disease.

How about writing a story where a cat has murophobia? How is he treated by the other cats? What caused him to have this irrational fear? Allow the cat to be cured of this phobia. How is he cured? Do the other cats somehow talk him into catching and eating mice? Or is he befriended by a mouse?

If you suffer from ornithophobia, a fear of birds, you might not want to watch The Birds, an Alfred Hitchcock movie. People with this phobia may just fear birds of prey, or it could be so severe that they fear even parakeets. This phobia usually stems from an unpleasant encounter with a bird or group of birds. Maybe one stole some food from your hands, or maybe it gained entrance to your house through an open window and tore up everything as it flew frantically around looking for a way of escape.

Cats love to catch mice; they are also known for catching birds. Why not write another story with a cat? This time, when the story opens the cat is not afraid of birds. In fact, he catches more birds than any of the other cats. Then one day something happens to cause him to be afraid of what he once hunted and caught so easily. What happened?

Strange Phobias

by Lisa Binion

Unless you are afflicted with one of the following phobias, you will probably find them kind of humorous. It is hard for me to believe that some people really have fears about things that are so much a part of our everyday life, things that are so vital to our way of living. They do make characters interesting, though.

Remember, when someone encounters something they have an excessive fear of the experiences rapid heartbeat, shortness of breath, trembling, anxiety, panic, terror, and/or dread.

Ablutophobia is the fear of washing or bathing. This phobia ranges from just a fear of showering (possibly from watching Psycho) to a fear of any type of washing or bathing. Obviously, there are social complications that arise from this. These range from being avoided and called names to loneliness and disease.

Your character doesn’t have ablutophobia, but meets someone who does. Where and how does he or she meet this individual? How old is this individual? What caused them to suffer from ablutophobia? Have your character feel compassion for this individual and find a way for him to overcome his fear of bathing.

Basophobia is the fear of walking or standing erect. Hmmm. How does a person who has basophobia get around? Jump? Crawl? Wheelchair? What would cause someone to have a phobia such as this? Maybe a bad fall.

Write a story where your character takes all kinds of risks. Then one day he or she takes a bad fall, one where he is injured pretty bad. When he recovers, he is afraid to walk or stand erect again. Is he able to overcome this fear? If so, how does he do it? How understanding are his friends and family members?

Cathisophobia, on the other hand, is the irrational fear of sitting down. Maybe a person who suffers from this phobia sat down on something that hurt really, really bad at one time in his life. Or maybe someone kept pulling the chair out from under him every time this person went to sit down. Anyway, I wonder, is it possible for a person to have both cathisophobia and basophobia? Write a story in which you have a character that suffers from both phobias. How does this person get from one place to another? What happened to cause this person to suffer from both phobias?

Cibophobia is a phobia that I definitely am nowhere close to suffering from. It is a fear of food. Yes, you did read that right, a fear of food. This phobia can worsen over time and get to the point where the person suffering from it endangers his own life.

Sometimes it is confused with anorexia, but there is a pretty major difference. Those suffering from anorexia fear the effects that food will have on their body image, while those with cibophobia fear the food itself. A person might appear to have some of the symptoms, but just want to eat healthy. If the symptoms get continually worse over time, then there could be a problem.

There are a lot of variations with this one. Know someone who is fanatical about expiration dates? What about someone who is overly concerned about making sure his food is well done, even to the point of burning it? Or maybe you know someone who refuses to keep leftovers for more than a day. Possibly a person suffering from this phobia would have very strict rules to govern his eating habits. This phobia has the potential to keep growing worse and worse to the point where an individual suffering from it would rather go hungry than to eat things that he thinks are questionable.

The character and story possibilities seem endless with this phobia. A young lady’s anorexia morphs into cibophobia. Her family is happy because she is eating again. They don’t think anything is wrong. What happens to clue them into that one danger has given way to another danger? Who tries to help her? Is she finally cured?

Weird Phobias

by Lisa Binion

There are so many phobias. Each and every one of them is fascinating. I think there is a phobia for just about everything in existence. A lot of phobias are considered common, others are considered to be weird or strange. Below are some of the ones considered to be weird.

The majority of people like beautiful things. The normal reaction to things that are not so nice looking is just to look away. Cacophobia is the fear of ugliness - whether it be ugly characters, ugly people, or ugly objects. What do you consider to be ugly? Opinions differ on this. A person could be beautiful on the outside, but ugly on the inside. Would someone with cacophobia be scared of them? If a child has physical deformities, would his mother with cacophobia think him ugly and be afraid of him? Could it just be a fear of oneself being ugly?

Your character with cacophobia has so far in life managed to go the opposite direction when anything ugly comes around. While jogging down the road, he is almost run down by an out-of-control vehicle. The music coming through his walkman prevents him from hearing its approach. He is saved only because he is shoved out of the way by this woman, the ugliest woman he has ever seen. How does he react when his eyes open and he sees who saved him?

Trees are beautiful and provide much needed shade on hot, sunny days. Someone who suffers from dendrophobia, the fear of trees, would not be able to enjoy the shade. Nor would this person go anywhere there are an abundance of trees. This means hiking trails and parks would be out of the question, as would be camping out and building campfires. Someone with dendrophobia would not be able to truly enjoy nature.

Your character is a young child with dendrophobia. Her parents are overbearing and think that she is just being a baby about not wanting to go camping, so they force her to go. She is terrified the entire time at the campsite and refuses to come out of her tent. That night there is a violent storm that rips her tent out of the ground and leaves her without shelter. Her parents try and keep her calm as they run for shelter, but it doesn’t work. Lightning hits a tree and knocks it over, causing it to fall on her parents; it pins them to the ground. Now she is their only hope of being saved. Is she able to make it back to civilization to get help for her parents? What does she experience along the way?

Arithmophobia is an irrational fear of numbers. Yes, some people are actually afraid of numbers. People suffering from this avoid learning anything about financial issues, prices, or any other things related to numbers. This must be a hard phobia to deal with if you are a student. How would a character with arithmophobia deal with filing his taxes each year? How would he keep his checkbook balanced? What would he do if his child needed help with math homework?

Telephonophobia is the fear of telephones. Since telephones are one of the most prominent ways of communication today, it would definitely be out of the ordinary to avoid using them. Imagine your character experiences life without a telephone, landline or cellular. How would he communicate with other people? What would happen if he were put in a situation where his only chance of communication was to use a telephone? Would he use it? Or would he rather suffer?

Fear of the sun is heliophobia. People suffering from this fear don't lay out in the sun and they keep their skin covered when they must be exposed to the sunlight. Since the sun is our main source of Vitamin D and is crucial to our health, this phobia could be detrimental to a person‘s health. This phobia would be common among vampires. Or someone with this phobia may believe he is a vampire. His skin would be deathly pale and he would wear sunglasses anytime he had to go out during daylight hours, though he would do everything in his power to avoid going out during the day.

If your character suffers from heliophobia, he would most likely have a night job, one that would allow him to be out and about during the night and sleep during the day. Very little light would be allowed to come into his house, his excuse being that he needs total darkness to sleep when he gets home from work. In his eyes, his life is perfect. Something happens that brings total chaos into his perfectly balanced life. What is it?

Phobias That Could Thwart Writers

by Lisa Binion

Halloween is the time when we think about scary things. What is out there that would scare a writer? Since there is a phobia for just about everything, it wasn't hard to find specific phobias that would hinder a writer's success. Some may even keep him from writing at all. If the thought of having one of the following phobias is bad, then just how bad would it be if you actually did have one or more of them? I wonder, would the desire to write be strong enough to overcome your fear?

If you don't have any of the following phobias (and I really hope you don't), then why don't you write a story about a wanna be writer who has one or more of them? Help this character overcome the phobias he or she has, then have your character go on to become a published writer, one whose books are in great demand.

Anthropophobia is the fear of meeting people. This one wouldn't so much hinder one from writing anything, but it could develop into a problem when the writer needs to meet new people like agents, publicists, or fans.

Bibliophobia is the fear of books. Maybe a writer afflicted with this phobia could just write short stories or articles. But a fear of books would make researching any subject difficult. Research could always be done on the internet, but if this writer also has Interophobia, the fear of the Internet, then using the Internet would also be out of the question.

Catagelophobia or Katagelophobia is the fear of being made fun of or ridiculed. I used to fear that people would make fun of the stories and/or articles that I wrote, but since I have been with BellaOnline, this fear has subsided. This fear doesn't so much hinder your writing as it impedes you letting others read your writing. It could also keep you from sending your creations off to publishers.

Glossophobia of is the fear of speaking in public. This phobia may hinder one from joining a writers' group. If an author's writing is a success, then this may slow down his or her career when invitations to appear on televion show or radio shows for interviews are turned down. This phobia would even make one not want to speak to a classroom full of those wanting to learn more about writing.

Ideophobia is the fear of ideas. Where would a writer be without any ideas? New ideas are such a huge part this career. Why would one be afraid of them? There isn't a lot of information on this phobia, but I don't know if someone with this phobia could be a writer.

Logophobia or Verbophobia is the fear of words. Wow. Not only would that hinder writing, it would hinder speaking and listening to others talk. How would one manage to communicate with a fear of words? Sign language? Even this would require having a vocabulary.

Panphobia or Pantophobia is the fear of nothing specific, but the fear of everything. A person with this phobia lives in a state of anxiety all the time.

Peniaphobia is the fear of poverty. Maybe this phobia wouldn't so much thwart writers as much as make them work harder at attempting to write a best seller. It really isn't easy to become rich by writing. There are a few lucky ones whose first novel becomes a smashing success, but that is not the norm.

Scopophobia is the fear of being seen or looked at. I guess one could just become a recluse and never leave the house or be seen by anyone, but writers do need to see other people. How would you know how people act without watching them? Characters on television act the way their writers make them act, not necessarily how they would act if they were real.

Sophophobia is the fear of learning. How can one write without learning anything? What about research?

Tropophobia is the fear of making changes. This would be bad, especially when one had to make changes to the story thought to be absolute perfection. A writer's ego, usually a fragile thing anyway, just might not be able to handle being told that his or her perfect story was not so perfect after all.

If there are any other phobias you believe would thwart a writer's success, please tell me about them in the forum.

Phobias

by Lisa Binion

Is there anything that you are afraid of? Anything that you try to stay away from? Everyone has their own set of fears. Sometimes there is a reason for those fears, sometimes not. A phobia is a persistent, irrational fear of an object, activity, situation or person that leaves a someone with a compelling desire to avoid it no matter how much reassurance of its safety this given.

What happens if someone encounters the object of their fear? They could feel dread, nausea, or breathlessness. They could sweat excessively or lose the ability to think or speak clearly. They could lose control and become angry. Detachment from reality is a possibility, as is a full-blown anxiety attack.

One of my favorite television shows is Monk. Sadly, the series has ended. If you ever watched any of the episodes, I’m sure you are at least casually acquainted with his many phobias. He was scared to death of several things. Some of these feared objects are common phobias or fears, like his fear of snakes; some of them were not so common, like his fear of milk.

Phobias are an excellent way to make your characters unique. Give him or her a strange phobia to set him apart from all of the rest and show how it affects his daily life and interactions with others. There is a list of phobias longer than you could ever imagine. Over time, I will try and cover them all.

The extreme fear of chickens is called alektorophobia. Those who suffer from this phobia aren’t just afraid of being around chickens. This fear also extends to chicken eggs or feathers. A fear of contamination because chickens eat their food off of the ground is also present. There are a few that fear even cooked chickens, but most of the time this phobia manifests itself around uncooked or live chickens.

Your character has alektorophobia. This doesn’t slow life down much, as it is easy to avoid chickens, dead or alive. Then his uncle dies and leaves him a million dollars. Before he can receive his inheritance, there is one thing the will states that he must do - he must stay at a chicken ranch for one week and take care of the chickens himself. Will he be able to do this?

This next phobia would definitely make life interesting and challenging. Vestiphobia is an overwhelming, irrational fear of clothing. In today’s society, walking around unclothed all the time just isn’t socially or legally acceptable. People who suffer from this fear may insist on wearing loose, over-sized clothing. If they suffer from an extreme case of Vestiphobia, they may withdraw from society completely and live out in the middle of nowhere so they can run around naked all the time.

Your character with Vestiphobia is blessed to live in a society where clothing is optional. Then one day he walks through a time portal and goes back to the time when the Pilgrims had built a colony in the New World. Clothing was definitely not optional, it was a requirement. What happens?

Coulrophobia is fear of clowns. A person who suffers from this phobia would definitely not want to visit a circus. But there are more ways than going to a circus to run across clowns. Filmmakers and authors - for example, Stephen King - have made use of this abnormal, exaggerated fear of clowns. A person who suffers from coulrophobia could also fear covering up one’s facial features with face paint, feeling that someone who hides their face is up to no good.

Your character has coulrophobia. It isn’t hard to avoid clowns, unless your family works with the circus. Your character’s parents just happen to be part of the biggest circus around. And their best friend is the clown. How does your character deal with this? What is the underlying reason for his phobia?

Peladophobia is a fear of bald people. Your character has peladophobia. So all she has to do is avoid relationships with people who have no hair. This is easy to do, until she walks into work one day and finds out her boss has been replaced - by a bald man. Even worse, this is a guy she went to school with who had a crush on her. Could he be the reason she has this phobia? Or will he be the one to help cure her of this fear?

Gift Ideas for the Writer in Your Life

by Lisa Binion

Do you have a friend or loved one who is a writer? Having problems deciding what to get for his or her birthday or Christmas? You can always buy them writing books, reference books, or books by their favorite author. Or you could give them something that would inspire their writing and put their creative minds to work.

A gift that would be low cost, appreciated and useful for anyone who writes is a journal in a jar. To make a journal in a jar, first you need a large jar with a lid. Next, come up with 365 questions about the person’s life, one for each day of the year. Some suggested questions are at the end of this article.

Write or type out each question on a small piece of paper. When you have a question for each day of the year written out, fold them in half and put them all in the jar. Put the lid on it and tie with a ribbon.

Include some instructions with the journal in a jar - "Take out 1 piece of paper each day and either answer the question about your own life or base a story on the question. At the end of a year, you’ll either have enough material to write your own life story or you’ll have written 365 short stories."

Of course, you can change theme of “journal in a jar” to anything you believe the writer would enjoy. You can ask 365 questions about any subject underneath the sun, or combine questions on several different areas that the individual is interested in.

Examples of questions to ask about someone’s life.
1. Was your name chosen for you because it had some special meaning to your parents?
2. What music groups were popular during your teenage years?
3. How did you meet your first boyfriend or girlfriend?
4. What was the political climate like in the world when you were born?
5. What is the one thing you could not possibly live without?

Tell the name for each of the following fears.
1. A fear of atomic explosions.
2. A fear of belly buttons.
3. A fear of the number eight.
4. A fear of frogs.
5. A fear of writing.

Yes, those are actual phobias. You can do an internet search and find the names for hundreds of these irrational fears.

You could also give them a writing prompt for each day of the year. There are several places on the web where you can find good writing prompts. Or you could always write them out yourself. Instead of putting these in a jar, you could print them out on paper and give the prompts with an attractive notebook and pen.

Examples of writing prompts.
1. After a hard day at work, Mary arrives home and finds something in her house that shouldn’t be there. What is it and how did it get there?
2. The king’s mistress gives birth to twins. Scared that the king will find out, she sends one of them to be raised by a couple in the village. Why doesn’t she want the king to find out she had twins?
3. Clarissa buys a coat during the summer at a yard sale, but doesn’t wear it until winter. When she first puts it on and sticks her hands in the pockets, she finds a small pouch of diamonds. How did they end up in the coat?
4. Barry and Melissa have just moved to a new neighborhood with their family. Their first night in the new house, they are kept awake by strange noises coming from the underneath their beds. What is making the noises?
5. Old Mrs. Murphy loves animals. She has a whole menagerie of animals that she cares for. A curmudgeon has moved into the house next door to Mrs. Murphy and believes that the neighborhood would be better off, at least for him, if the animals were sent away. Can Mrs. Murphy teach her neighbor to love her pets as much as she does or will she have to get rid of them?

Unless you give the writer a notebook and pen to go with the journal in a jar, the gift costs only your time and effort. This is a gift that would be used and appreciated.

There are many variations of the gift you could come up with yourself. Have fun with it and adapt it to something the writer in your life would truly enjoy. Merry Christmas and happy New Year!

Show, Don't Tell

by Lisa Binion

“Show, don’t tell.” What exactly does that mean? How does one show what is happening instead of just telling? What are the benefits of doing so?

Telling is easy.

The room was bare.

Showing takes just a bit of thought, a bit of description, and sometimes a bit of conversation.

The sun peeked through the dirt encrusted windows onto a dusty wooden floor. Huge cobwebs hung low from the ceiling. No couch or chair to relax in after a hard day’s work awaited whoever came home. No shelves full of books to read or television to watch caused Henry to think this would be a great place to hide out.

What are the benefits of showing instead of simply telling? First of all, it will be more memorable. In the above examples, which one would you be more likely to remember? I’m willing to bet that you would be more likely to remember the second one, the one that leaves you wondering just who or what Henry wants to hide from.

What does the above paragraph tell you about the room? The room is bare, yes, but there is also dirt encrusted around the windows and the floor is dusty. There is no furniture, no television, no books in the room. It is pretty obvious that no one has lived there for quite some time. A few well-placed adjectives can keep you from having to write long, boring descriptions that may cause the reader to want to put down the book. Or the reader might have a habit of just skipping over the 'boring' parts.

When you get one of your characters to describe another person or a place, this is called half show-half tell. Instead of saying,

People began to talk about Henry because he stole Mrs. Frobisher’s jewels,

you could half show-half tell. This is done through the conversations of your characters.

Imogene grabbed hold of Mary as she walked by. “Did you hear what Henry did? The police arrested him for stealing Mrs. Frobisher’s jewelry, the stuff her uncle left her in his will. The idiot left his hat behind for the police to find."

When you show instead of tell, another benefit is that the reader becomes more involved in the story. He actually feels as though he is one of the characters. When the character is hurt, the reader feels hurt. When the character cries, the reader sympathizes and may even cry along with the character. When the character feels joy, the reader will smile along with him and be happy. In other words, the reader becomes emotionally involved with the story. Once this happens, he will find it nearly impossible to put the book down.

Showing instead of telling is great, just be careful not to overdo it. You need to pick what you show and what you tell.

A telephone rings. Unless it is pertinent to the story, the telephone just rings.

The dishes are washed. Again, unless there is something about washing the dishes that is vital to the story, the dishes are just washed.

Too much showing and you run the risk of boring your reader, especially if things that are not pertinent to the story are described in too much detail. You obviously use more words when you show.

To practice showing and not telling, try ‘showing’ things around you on paper. Show a dog playing with a Frisbee, an elderly lady with visual problems grocery shopping, a disabled man or woman climbing a steep set of stairs, a frustrated mother with a crying baby, and a husband celebrating his 50th wedding anniversary with his wife, now deceased. Feel free to post your exercises in the forum.

Planning Your Culture

by Lisa Binion

Whether you realize it or not, culture is central to your story, even if you write a story that takes place in modern times. Over time the clothes that are worn, the music that is listened to, the way people travel, the hobbies that people have, the way people practice their religion, the way that people look at things - these will all change. If you want your story to survive through the ages and be read time and time again, you need to write your story not just for the time, but for all times. How do you manage to do this?

Cultures are made up of people (or animals, if that is the way your story works) who share a common interest, who share a related outlook on life and who keep certain goals. It may be required that some of the citizens set aside differences. Of each member personal sacrifices of time, effort and resources are required for the good of the community if it is to survive and flourish past the lifetimes of those who are in it now.

Let’s take the Writer Culture as an example. (I chose the Writer Culture for obvious reasons). The common ground of writers is to put words formed into a story or article onto paper, a computer screen, or clay tablets (depending on the time in which they live). Their mutual outlook on life is that they have something they need to share with a few people or a lot of people. If they are lucky, what they write down will actually be read. But that doesn’t matter, a writer's compelling need is to write it down.

Their goals are to finish whatever they are writing, send it out to an editor and hopefully be published. They may have the goal of writing so many words each day, or so many paragraphs, chapters, or scenes. When writers meet with other writers, they generally are able to set aside differences in religion, politics, personal beliefs, and so on and just discuss their true love of writing.

Where does making personal sacrifices come into the writing culture? Well, writers may sacrifice time that most people spend watching television, sleeping, or even going places in order to have time to write. You need to write even when you don’t feel inspired, but inspiration chooses to hit at the most unexpected and inconvenient times. A writer may be in the middle of doing something he really enjoys when the inspiration for a scene that has been eluding him comes. Then the choice must be made whether to leave what he is doing and write the scene while the inspiration is fresh, or pray that later he remembers it.

Writers work together for the good of the entire group by sharing information with each other. If one knows how to write great descriptions, he will share how with the others. They would also make suggestions to each other. One may share with another how he makes notes so that momentary inspiration is brought back to memory later.

When new writers appear on the scene, they are supported so that the writing culture will continue and grow. They should be encouraged to write and send work off to editors. It is impossible to be published if your work never leaves your house.

The same thing also works with musicians, artists, mechanics, and many more. There are also subcultures, where the membership is more restrictive, within each culture.

You need to show the culture at work in the lives of your characters and let your reader know why they act the way they do and speak that way they speak. Your work is more likely to stand the test of time if these things are made clear to the reader. People still enjoy books written by Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, and Shakespeare even though the way we live now is far removed from the way life was in their books.

Basically, your planned culture needs to cover the home life, the community, religious beliefs, practices and government. The more that each section relates to your story, the more deeply you need to plan it out.

It is fun to create a culture, one where you decide the rules and the way of life. Just be careful not to get so caught up in creating your culture that you forget about your story, the reason for creating this culture in the first place.

In Create A Culture Clinic, author Holly Lisle goes even deeper into how to successfully create any kind of culture. She provides questions that you need to answer to ensure that every part of your culture is planned out. This is simply a great book, one that I highly recommend you make part of your writer’s library. I have provided a link to if you wish to purchase this book from Holly Lisle.

Create A Culture Clinic, by Holly Lisle

Plot Basics

by Lisa Binion

There are those who say that there are only 7 basic plots: a person vs. nature, a person vs. a person, a person vs. the environment, a person vs. machines/technology, a person vs. the supernatural, a person vs. self, and a person vs. god/religion.

That is about as basic as you can get. I don’t know about you, but I need more than that to my storyline. The above “plots” lack characters and a story; they are simply conflicts. Conflicts - lots of them - are needed to put together a plot. The events that happen and propel both your characters and your story onward is your plot.

Others propose that there are 20 basic plots: quest, adventure, pursuit, rescue, escape, revenge, the riddle, rivalry, underdog, temptation, metamorphosis, transformation, maturation, love, forbidden love, sacrifice, discovery, wretched excess, ascension, and descension.

This gets even better. Now we find that some propose 36 basic plots:
1) supplication (in which the supplicant must beg something from power in authority)
2) deliverance
3) crime pursued by vengeance
4) vengeance taken for kindred upon kindred
5) pursuit
6) disaster
7) falling prey to cruelty of misfortune
8) revolt
9) daring enterprise
10) abduction
11) the enigma ( temptation or a riddle)
12) obtaining
13) enmity of kinsmen
14) rivalry of kindmen
15) murderous adultery
16) madness
17) fatal imprudence
18) involuntary crimes of love (for example, the discover that one has married a brother or sister, etc.)
19) slaying of a kinsman unrecognized
20) self-sacrificing for an ideal
21) self-sacrifice for kindred
22) all sacrificed for passion
23) necessity of sacrificing loved ones
24) rivalry of superior and inferior
25) adultery
26) crimes of love
27) discovery of the dishonor of a loved one
28) obstacles to love
29) an enemy loved
30) ambition
31) conflict with a god
32) mistaken jealousy
33) erroneous judgement
34) remorse
35) recovery of a lost one
36) loss of loved ones

The things suggested as your 20 basic plots and as your 36 basic plots name out the conflicts that could take place, but you are still lacking characters to go along with those conlicts. These basic plots could be used to give you ideas, but they are not something that I would depend on to try and develop your plot.

A plot consists of every part of the storyline - the people, the conflicts, the world it takes place in. An important thing to remember is that no plot is ever set in stone until the story is published. Bits and pieces or it, or huge chunks of it can be changed as you write the story, not just one time but several times.

Use things that have happened in your own life, or in the lives of others you know, as a starting point for your plot. In October of this year, a spider with lots and lots of legs, somehow managed to crawl back inside my ear. Even though the little creature had only eight legs, it felt like so many more! Anyway, I had no clue what kind of bug had crawled in my ear until it came out. For a former arachnophobiac, that was a terrifying moment. The sensation of the creature moving around in my ear was terrifying enough, but the moment it came out and I saw what had been in my ear was even worse.

What happened to me could be turned in to a plot. It could be a thriller, a mystery, or a romance. Maybe even a heart-warming reunion story or a science fiction/fantasy story. The choice is mine. It all depends on the plot I choose.

My first thought was a thriller. Another author I know immediately said that it would make a fantastic children's story. I haven't figured out how that would work, but that is what she said. I can see it as part of a mystery story. The event that happened could somehow lead to a romantic encounter or a reunion with long lost friends or family members. It could definitely be part of a science fiction/fantasy story.

Once the genre is decided upon, then the main characters need to be developed and a basic storyline formed.

If you would like to learn more about creating a plot, I highly recommend Holly Lisle’s Create A Plot Clinic. The link I’ve provided below is to buy the book from HollyLisle.com.

Create A Plot Clinic, by Holly Lisle

Absolutely Certain to Advance Warning

by Lisa Binion

A redundant expression is an expression where each word in the expression means basically the same thing. For example, If you attend the opening, you will receive a free gift. Free gift is a redundant expression. Let's think for a moment about this. A gift is something that is given to you at no charge. When something is free, there is no charge for it. So instead of saying 'free gift', you should just say 'gift'.

Just because I am writing about how we need to get rid of redundant expressions in our writing (unless it is a character trait) doesn't mean that I never use them myself. Until I began looking at these expressions, I had no clue how many of them I had been speaking and writing. Once you look at the expression and explore what it really means, you will see that a redundant expression is just needless repetition. In spontaneous speech, redundancy is forgivable, but we need to cut it out of our writing.

This is the first of many articles on redundant expressions. After explaining why each expression is redundant, I will give you two sentences. The first will have the redundant expression, the second will not.

absolutely certain - Absolutely means totally and definitely. If something is certain, it will definitely happen.
I am absolutely certain the party is at 7 p.m.
I am certain the party is at 7 p.m.

absolutely essential - If something is essential, it is necessary and has to be.
It is absolutely essential that we go to the beach on a sunny day.
It is essential that we go to the beach on a sunny day.

absolutely guaranteed - A guarantee is absolute in itself, or at least it is supposed to be.
My word is absolutely guaranteed.
My word is guaranteed.

absolutely sure - When you are sure about something, you are certain it is so.
I am absolutely sure I have an English paper due tomorrow.
I am sure I have an English paper due tomorrow.

actual experience - Actual is used describe something that really happened, as opposed to something that happened in one's imagination. An experience is something that you have gone through, something that has happened to you. Why would you want to say actual experience?
I had that same actual experience.
I had that same experience.

actual fact - A fact is a piece of true, not false, information.
In actual fact, I saw the intruder myself.
In fact, I saw the intruder myself.

add an additional - When you add something, you provide more of it. When something is additional, more of it is provided.
Please add an additional order of fries.
Please add an order of fries.

add up - When you add numbers together, you find what they total. It is unnecessary to use 'up' with add, even though when something is 'up' it is increased in number.
Please add up the numbers for me.
Please add the numbers for me.

added bonus - A bonus is already understood to be something extra. When you get a bonus in your paycheck, you have money added to what it would normally be.
You can expect an added bonus at Christmas.
You can expect a bonus at Christmas.

advance forward - When you advance, you move forward. Wow. I just used forward to explain what the meaning of advance is, so why would you want to use the two words together?
The troops will advance forward ten miles each afternoon.
The troop will advance ten miles each afternoon.

advance notice - Notice is an announcement of something that is going to happen. The only way you wouldn't receive it in advance is if your notice was lost in the mail or someone chose not to tell you. A notice is always intended to be told before the fact.
Darlene received advance notice of the swim meet.
Darlene received notice of the swim meet.

advance planning - You don't wait until an event is over with to plan for it, you always plan for it in advance.
The wedding required a lot of advance planning.
The wedding required a lot of planning.

advance reservations - When you make reservations, you ensure that a room at a hotel will be saved for you, a seat on an airplane will be waiting on your arrival, or that a table at a restaurant will be kept for you. If you wait until you arrive, you aren't making reservations. Reservations are always made in advance.
Alisha requires patrons to make advance reservations to dine in her restaurant on Sundays.
Alisha requires patrons to make reservations to dine in her restaurant on Sundays.

advance warning - A warning is received of possible danger ahead. You wouldn't want to receive warning of a tornado 15 minutes after it hit where you live.
Advance warning of the approaching tidal wave cleared the beaches before it hit.
Warning of the approaching tidal wave cleared the beaches before it hit.

How many more redundant expressions can you think of?

Character Creation

by Lisa Binion

Every character starts out with a blank slate, kind of like a baby. His or her personality is formed through the hardships faced, the ways he thinks, the way he reacts, the way he gets what he wants.

The physical appearance of your character is important, but even more important are the events that have made your character like he is. It isn’t necessary to write a biography of your character, but it is necessary to know a few things about his life.

Your characters need to be real people with wants, hates, loves, desires, anger, resentment and so forth. I don’t want to read a book where the characters are all perfect, nor does anyone else I know of.

Every character, fictional or real, has a compelling need. One compelling need just about every human has is money. Not an unusual need, but a necessary one. How else will the bills get paid? The question is, how far will your character go, what will he do to ensure that he receives money? Will he turn to a life of crime? Will he deceive others? Does he just need money to pay his bills, or does he need money because he is hooked on drugs? He could have an expensive habit, one that frequently requires large sums of money.

Or the compelling need could be the friendship of a certain person, a person who seems impossible to get close to. And why would your character desire the friendship of this person? Once again, could it be money? Could it be drugs?

Once you’ve come up with something that your character would do almost anything to get, other questions will pop up about that need. The answers to these questions only serve to make your character more realistic.

Now that you’ve decided on your character’s compelling need, what does he do for work and for play? Give him a job of some sort, whether he is paid for it or not. If your story takes place in the past or in a different part of the world or universe, the jobs could be different from those available here on earth.

What does he do to enjoy himself? Remember, work and play are not the same for every person and are looked upon in different ways by different cultures. But just about every person finds some way to pass the time in an enjoyable manner.

Now is the time to give the life of your characters some depth. Pick out important moments in their lives - times challenges were faced and he failed, or maybe he succeeded. The impact the death of a family member had on his life. Maybe he was witness to a murder and was scarred by it permanently. Ask some questions about the past. Don’t be afraid to give your character obstacles to overcome. Your character's life wouldn't hold much interest if he never had any obstacles in the way of him achieving his goals.

What is going on with your character in the present? Has an event occurred that brought drama into his life? How does he feel about important issues? Would he ever turn to crime? Would he ever betray those close to him?

What are his dreams for the future?

Who are his friends? Enemies? Lovers?

What are his religious beliefs? Is he afraid of death?

What are his moral beliefs?

Answer the questions that pertain to your character’s place in the story and you will find that he or she becomes more alive to you and to your readers.

To learn more on creating believable characters, I highly recommend Holly Lisle’s Create A Character Clinic. I have provided a link below for you to purchase this book from Holly Lisle, if you so desire.

Create A Character Clinic, by Holly Lisle

The Writer's Journal

by Lisa Binion

Do you dream? Do entire novels play themselves out in your imagination each night as you are peacefully, or not so peacefully, slumbering? Perhaps you daydream? Do you lose track of where you are and what is going on because you have been sucked into a world that your mind has created? Does it distress you that when you sit down to write that you can never remember these dreams?

A great way to keep track of all the story ideas that go running through your head is to keep a writer’s journal. Unlike a diary, you don’t keep track of the daily events of your life, though you can track those as well, if you wish. Instead you write down story ideas, character descriptions, snatches of dialogue and anything else that you might want to use in a story.

Two separate journals would be great - one in a notebook that you carry around in your purse or car and another on your computer. The notebook in your purse or car comes in handy when you are away from home and your computer. You can jot down interesting things that you see, scraps of overheard conversation, descriptions of people, etc.

A journal on your computer is a great place to organize these ideas. It might also be a good idea to print out this computer journal and keep a copy of it somewhere. In case of an extended electrical outage, it would be nice to still have access to your notes when the computer is pretty much useless. Even if you have a laptop, the battery will only run for so long without power.

The notebook in your purse also comes in handy if, for instance, you run out of gas and have to wait on someone to bring you more. That happened to me once, and I used the time to sit and write about the experience in a journal I carried with me. I don’t recommend running out of gas, though. The experience taught me a lot, but it really wasn’t much fun.

Ideas tend to go running full speed through your head when you can’t stop to write them down or take time out to type them on your laptop. When that happens, just rest assured that if the same ideas will come back to you if they are worth remembering.

Your writer’s journal is a good place to write down the experiences that you go through and how you react emotionally and physically, and the reactions of others. Are you scared of storms? How does one make you feel? Have you gone through traumatizing times raising you teenage children? Have you ever been the victim of a crime? Have you ever had a parent die? Have you ever been attracted to someone who wasn't attracted to you? Has your marriage ever been on the rocks? All of these experiences are fodder for a future story, even when it hurts to write about them.

If you have a camera, digital or not, pictures speak volumes. Pictures of interesting things or places add to your journal and spark your memories and imagination. Pictures of a trip to the Golden Gate Bridge could start your muse thinking about a romance or murder centered around the bridge. Grab your camera, go outside your house, and look around. In the fall, take pictures of the trees as their leaves change to brilliant yellow, gold, and orange. There is a boat in my backyard. Yes, I said a boat. It is an unused boat, rather old and dilapidated, but right above this old boat is a tree whose leaves have turned the most beautiful shades of gold, orange, and yellow. Behind this gorgeous tree are other trees, already stripped of their leaves by the cooler autumn temperatures. One way to get your mind back on track when writer's block sets in is to pull out the pictures and stare at them. You will be amazed at stories that begin to run through your mind.

New words that you have learned can be kept track of in your journal. Subscribe online to receive a new word to learn each day at http://wordsmith.org/. It is free and you will learn new words that can be used in your writing. Today’s new word was eleemosynary. It is an adjective that means relating to charity. ”Every Thanksgiving our church has an eleemosynary dinner.”

Write down scraps of overheard dialogue. I’m not encouraging you to eavesdrop or anything, but when you go shopping or walk down the street in a busy town, you can’t help but pick up scraps of conversation, especially around the holidays. “I can’t believe it. My mother-in-law is coming down to spend Christmas with us! I would never forgive myself if she tripped and fell on the ice.” No, that wasn’t overheard, but if you happen to listen in on a scrap of conversation like that, questions arise. What does the lady have against her mother-in-law? Is she planning on 'accidentally' making her trip and fall on the ice? What will her husband do if he finds out? For that matter, what kind of person is the mother-in-law? Does she try to run her son’s marriage and try to tell his wife what to do? Does the son call his mother and ask her advice about everything, instead of talking to his wife about them? Could there possibly be some resentment there?

Look at your mind maps. Take, for instance, the items that bring you fear. Most everyone is scared of tornadoes, unless you are a tornado chaser. Write down why you are scared of them. Do the same for each of the words under each heading.

Ideas are everywhere around us. As writers, we need to keep track of them and be able prompt our muse to make stories out of them at a moment’s notice. A writer’s journal helps us to accomplish this.

Dealing with Writer's Block

by Lisa Binion 

The dictionary defines writer's block as a usually temporary psychological inability to begin or continue work on a piece of writing. Scary thought, huh? For a writer, not being able to write can shatter an ego and become a nightmare.

Is writer's block all in your head or is it real? Not everyone believes that writer's block exists. Some believe that it is an excuse to get out of writing or just pure laziness. Those who believe this have obviously never suffered from writer's block. Every writer has days where it is hard to write. This tends to happen if you have really been pushing yourself to write a lot and have spent days doing nothing but writing. If you are stuck and having problems, it could mean you just need to take a break.

Get away from writing for a short period of time. Go for a walk or a jog. When I am walking or jogging is when my creativeness is at its peak. Often I wish I had an internal tape recorder to record my thoughts so I could transcribe them on paper when I get back in front of my computer. If you are so lucky as to have a hottub, go relax in it for a while. Allow the heat and steam to rekindle the creative part of your mind.

Clean your kitchen. Agatha Christie said that the best time to plan a book is while you are doing the dishes. If you can plan one while you do the dishes, you should also be able to plan one while vacuuming the carpet, dusting the furniture, sweeping the kitchen floor, hanging out or folding the laundry, etc. Make housework one of your most creative times.

What robs us of the ability to create? It is my belief that stress has a lot to do with it. Some people can write no matter what is going on in their lives. They have learned to separate themselves from the situation. I'm not one of those people. If there is something not so good happening in my life, not only does it affect how I write, it affects what I write.

You can learn to deal with normal, everyday stress so that it doesn't bring to a halt your writing ability. There are more stressful situations, so horrific you can think of nothing else - such as a child running away from home, finding out a spouse or significant other has been unfaithful, a loved one in a possibly fatal accident, etc. - that can seriously disrupt the creative flow.

At times like these write something you can focus on - write down what you are feeling. When things are back to normal, what you wrote down will give you new inspiration and insight for future characters.

When your muse has seemed to quit cooperating with you, there are some things you can do can coax her back. Try reading through some of my writing prompts articles. Some of them are specifically writing prompts. Others take their start from collecive nouns, from phobias, from unusual holidays, or from whatever else I happen to be writing about.

Are you more of a visual person? Start looking at pictures. They can be your own pictures, or pull up some pictures on the internet. Pull of pictures of other countries, pictures taken in the desert, in the jungle, in the sky. Pull out pictures from your childhood or the one's taken of your children when they were young.

Pick up a pen and a sheet of paper. Write down the first word that comes to mind. Now write down all of the words that the first word makes you think of. Allow your mind to form a storyline with one or more of the words you wrote down used as its basis.

If you need more help, there are several websites that offer creative writing prompts. Language is a Virus at www.languageisavirus.com offers writing prompts, writing games, exercises and tips. Possibly you will learn how to make writing fun once again.

Writing is a skill. The more you practice any skill, the better you become at it. Make it a habit to write each and every day, whether or not you feel inspired, whether or not the creative juices are flowing. If you find your writing to be stale and unimaginative, if you just can't persuade the words to come, then write a letter. Pick an object and write a description of it. Write a review of the last book you read. Pick random words out of a dictionary and construct a story using them. Anything to convince your brain to write. Once the creative juices have begun to flow, work on a current project. You need to write every day, even if you don’t like what you are writing and feel that it could be done much better.

Holly Lisle, a successful writer, has written a book, How to Beat Writer's Block (And Have FUN Writing From Now On). You can buy a copy of this book for yourself by clicking on the below link.

How To Beat Writer's Block (And Have FUN Writing From Now On)

Point of View

by Lisa Binion

Your story's plot is full of action, the characters are outstanding, and the locale is mysterious and exciting. How do you decide which point of view to write it in?

Point of view (POV) is whose eyes the story is told through. There are four different POVs - first person, second person, third person, and omniscient.

First Person
First person POV is the most intimate. This POV has its advantages and disadvantages. Through it you experience the story from only one person's perception. Since you are seeing, hearing, and experiencing only what your viewpoint character does, you will not know about any events that isn't personally known by this character.

Example
My heart pounded as the growling dog, saliva dripping from it black tongue, viciously stalked towards me.

You are subject to the world view of this character. If he or she is self-centered, mentally unstable, scared to death of dogs or thinks everyone is out to get him, you will experience the story the way he sees it. This is great for mysteries or thrillers where you don’t want the reader to know everything. Watson could not reveal everything to us that Sherlock Holmes knew, nor was Hastings able to reveal the secrets only Hercule Poirot knew. In this way the reader is kept in suspense. The author cannot include anything not witnessed or heard by the narrator. Everything is seen and understood from their view of the way things happen.

Second Person
Second person is told from the perspective of “you”. This is not commonly used, except in instructional writings.

Example
Your heart pounded as the growling dog, saliva dripping from its black tongue, stalked towards you.

When you give someone directions, you normally use second person.

Example
“You go three blocks down Main Street. Then you take a left turn onto Bloom Avenue. The house you are looking for is at the end of the road.”

Omniscient
In the omniscient point of view everything is seen, everything is known. This technique, frequently used in the nineteenth century, is seldom used today. With it you only read about things the different characters experience. Whether or not you experience what the characters do depends upon how caught up you are in the story.

Example
Maya’s heart pounded as the growling dog , saliva dripping from its black tongue, stalked towards her. From underneath a bush, ten little puppy eyes, never letting their mama out of sight, anxiously watched.

Using omniscient POV, the reason the dog is growling at Maya is seen. She is only protecting her puppies. If Maya could see these puppies, she would know to turn and go the other direction, away from the bush.

Third Person
Third person POV is a compromise between omniscient POV and first person POV. This point of view allows you to switch back and forth between different characters and the unique way they each see things. There can be multiple lead characters when the story is written in third person POV. This is now the one that most writers use today.

Just be sure to not make the story confusing for your reader. There should not be too much head-hopping and it should always be clear when the point of view character is switched. If you confuse the reader, chances are your story will be cast aside and not finished.

How does one decide which character has the point of view for each scene? Whichever character has the most to lose should be the one you select.

In two of the prior example sentences, Maya is the human with the most to lose. When you consider that the dog is a mother protecting her young, the dog is the one with the most to lose. Are you good enough to write a scene from a dog’s point of view? Although I’ve never attempted to write from an animal’s point of view, it has successfully been done before.

No matter what your story is about, realize that which point of view you choose to write in determines how your story will be told and how much the reader will be kept in suspense.

Dictionaries and Thesauri

by Lisa Binion

Dictionaries and thesauri are reference books that every writer needs to keep close by. A dictionary should be consulted not only to find the meanings of words, but also to check for their correct spelling. The spell-check feature in Word is great, but you will run into problems if you misspell the word that needs to be used by accidentally using a completely different word that is spelled correctly. Your spell-checker doesn't have a brain. How is it supposed to know that you meant to use another word?

Saham sent a viscuos volley of small arms and mortars into the advancing army.

Take a second to read through the above sentence and see if you can spot the mistake. Did you manage to find it? Viscuos is the incorrect word. Not only is it spelled wrong, it was not the word meant to be used. Viscous means thick and sticky. The word that the author meant to use was vicious. The sentence should read - Saham sent a vicious volley of small arms and mortar into the advancing army.

Now, see if you can discover the wrong word in this sentence - In twenty minuets, we find a place to hide and take cover.

This is one that the spell-checker would not have caught. Minuets is a word and it is spelled correctly, but a minuet is either a particular dance or the music for that type of dance, not a passage of time. The word meant to be used was minutes.

Then we have homonyms, words that sound just alike, but have different meanings and completely different spellings. These words confuse so many individuals. Many people who wouldn't notice if you mixed-up some homonyms, but as a writer, you really don't want to use the wrong word. There, their, and they're are some great examples of frequently confused homonyms. There tells location - The shoes are over there in the corner. Their is possessive and shows ownership - Their shoes are over there in the corner. They're is a contraction and means 'they are' - They're on the way to get their shoes from over there. Your spell-checker would not count any of the above homonyms wrong, even if you used them in an incorrect way.

If a word is used in a way that you think could be wrong, you might want to look up the definition. You might just not be familiar with all of its meanings. For example, did you know that the word 'candle' can also be a verb? Don't believe me? Look it up.

Why would a thesaurus, a book that contains lists of synonyms, be needed? A synonym is a word that means almost the exact same thing as another word, but it does not sound the same and is spelled completely different. Hat is the example word I am going to use.

Let's say you have a character who is known for wearing a hat. You don't want to say that he just wears a hat; there are so many different types of hats and they each look so unique.

If your character happens to live in Australia, perhaps he would wear a bush hat, a cowboy hat with the brim turned up on one side. A sombrero, a Mexican broad hat made of straw or felt, would be worn if your character was in Mexico. Does your character dress like Sherlock Holmes? Then he would wear a deerstalker. One in the Scottish Highland Military would wear a glengarry.

What about your female characters? A soft, domelike hat for women that is pulled down over the forehead is a cloche. A bejeweled, decorated skullcap for weddings and evening wear is a Juliet. A knitted winter hat is known as a watch cap.

All of the above words for hat, as well as their meanings, can be found in Roget's Super Thesaurus, Second Edition.

“What does it matter if there are fifty different ways to say something?” you ask. “If it is a hat, I'll just call it a hat.” Have you ever read a paragraph or a page where the exact same word is repeated time and time again? Maybe I'm the only one that it affects this way, but that drives me crazy. The story loses some of its oomph and becomes a real drag to read if that happens.

For example:
The light fixtures were the first thing Mary looked at when she entered the room. So many beautiful ones sat all around the room, she couldn't stop looking at each one of them. The first one she looked at looked as though it would cast a warm, soft glow throughout whatever room it was in.

That was a terrible, boring paragraph without hopes of going anywhere. Let me see if I can help it any at all.

The light fixtures were the first thing Mary beheld when she entered the room. So many beautiful ones were displayed around the room, she couldn't resist admiring them individually. The first one she feasted her eyes on appeared as though it would cast a warm, soft glow throughout whatever room it graced.

I think you will agree the second example is so much easier to read. With a thesaurus, you can make sure you use a variety of words that will help you magically transform whatever you write into something interesting and fun to read.

When online, you can go to www.onelook.com if you need to look up the definition of a word. This site gives you a list of online dictionaries that define the word you need. For a thesaurus, go to www.thesaurus.com. Both of these sites are visited frequently by me.

Homonyms from Cite to Coaled

by Lisa Binion

Homonyms are words that sound just alike, yet are spelled differently and have completely different meanings. These words are easily confused by many people, even writers. How many of the following words did you realize were homonyms? Please realize, I don't give every meaning for each word. Consult your dictionary for a complete understanding of each word.

cite, sight, and site
Cite means to quote, to mention in support or proof of, to summon, or to call to mind.
The attorney will cite the constitution in her client's defense.
Sight means a view or glimpse.
The distracted mouse was totally unaware that the cat had him in its sight and was preparing to pounce.
A site is the position of a town or building. It is also the address of something on the internet. As a verb, it means to put in a position for operation.
The site of David's business was in the heart of the Appalachians.
David's grandfather taught him to site a rifle.

cited, sighted, and sited
Cited is the past tense of cite.
The attorney cited the constitution in her client's defense.
Sighted is the past tense of sight.
The distracted mouse was totally unaware that the cat had sighted him and was preparing to pounce.
Sited is the past tense of site.
David sited the rifle before shooting at the unsuspecting deer.

cites, sights, and sites
You should already know the meanings of the above words, so I'm just going to give some example sentences. You would use this tense of verb when writing in the present tense.
The attorney cites the constitution in her client's defense.
The unsuspecting mouse is totally unaware of what is happening as the cat sights him and prepares to pounce.
David sites the rifle before shooting the unsuspecting deer.

Claus, clause, and claws
Everyone knows who Claus is. He is the fat, jolly guy who is supposed to bring gifts.
Melinda hid behind the couch on Christmas Eve to see if she could catch sight of Santa Claus when he snuck into the house with their gifts.
A clause is a provision in a treaty, will, or other legal document.
The clause in the will stated that Matthew had to complete college before he would receive his inheritance.
Claws are the sharp , curved nails of an animal.
The dog's owners have to take him to the vet every time he his claws need trimmed.

clew and clue
A clew is a ball or skein of thread or yarn.
Granny stuck her knitting needles in the lavender clew.
A clue is a hint.
The murderer unintentionally left behind a myriad of clues..

click and clique
A click is a slight, sharp sound.
Precious was trained to listen for the click of the latch.
A clique is an exclusive group.
The trio of rich girls formed a clique and refused to become friends with anyone else.

climb and clime
When you climb, you go up or ascend.
George took care when he needed to climb the old and rickety ladder.
Clime is the climate or weather conditions.
The moderate clime in the valley persuaded the Johnson family to sell their home and move.

close and clothes
When you close something, you shut it.
Please close the door when you leave.
Clothes are garments.
Their new clothes are all washed and ready to wear.

coal and cole
Coal is a combustible mineral substance used as fuel.
Jack's father worked in the coal mines of West Virginia.
Cole is a curly-leafed cabbage. Wow. I wonder if that is how they came up with the word 'coleslaw'.
Jennifer picked some cole out of the garden to go with dinner.

coaled and cold
Coaled means to supply with coal.
The coaled-up locomotives steamed down the tracks; the others just sat still.
Cold means chilly or at a lower temperature than what is comfortable.
The fall nights are beginning to turn cold.

Homonyms from Chased to Chute

by Lisa Binion

It pays for writers to know their homonyms and the proper use of each one. It is a shame that so many people, including many writers, have homonym issues. I have seen mixed up homonyms in books, in articles, and even in newspaper stories.

chased and chaste
When you chase someone or something, you run after it. Chased is the past tense of chase.
Jilly chased the rolling ball down the hill.
Chaste means pure and virginal.
Stephen thought that all hope of meeting a chaste woman had vanished, then he was introduced to Mina.

check and Czech
One can write a check for services rendered. When you check into something, you make inquiries about it.
In the past, Jasmine had such bad luck in relationships that she hired a detective to check out her date.
A Czech is a person from the country of Czechoslovakia.
The Czech had no problem obtaining a passport to visit Canada.

chews and choose
When one chews food, one grinds it up with his teeth. When one thinks long and hard about an issue, one chews it over in one's mind.
Dorothea is so scared of choking when eating, she chews each bite of food for at least 5 minutes.
When you choose something, you pick it out from a number of different possibilities.
Anthony had so many books that sounded good to choose from, he had trouble deciding which one to buy.

Chile, chili, and chilly
Chile is a country in South America.
Robert and Samantha bought plane tickets for their trip to Chile.
Chili is a spicy stew made with chili peppers, garlic, cumin, garlic, onions, and ground beef.
Chili is one of our favorite meals during the fall and winter.
When the weather is chilly, it is cold enough to be just a bit unpleasant.
Because of the chilly weather, Katrina wore a jacket to the fall festival.

choir and quire
A choir is a group of singers.
During her freshman year in high school, Melissa joined the choir.
Quire, an obsolete spelling of choir, is a set of 24 uniform sheets of paper.
It was necessary for Antonion to fill the quire with what he had learned in his history class.

choler and collar
Choler is anger, wrath, or irritability.
Deborah, afraid of the choler that her abusive husband continued to show, packed her bags and left.
A collar is anything worn or placed around the neck.
Precious is trained to bring me her collar when she wants to go for a walk.

choral and coral
If something is choral, it has to do with a choir.
The choral music found in a box in the attic was hundreds of years old and worth a fortune.
Coral is a marine polyp skeleton.
Coral reefs provide homes for many different marine species.

chorale and corral
A chorale is a group of singers that specialize in singing church music.
The chorale was invited to perform at churches all over the world.
A corral is an enclosure for cows, horses, goats, etc.
Jenny really enjoyed helping to herd the goats into the corral when it was time to trim their hooves.

chord, cored, and cord
In music, a chord is three or more tones sounded at the same time.
Andrea was having trouble learning the keys to play for the G chord.
The core is the innermost, central part of something, so if an apple is cored, the center part of it is removed.
The cored apples were being used to make jam.
A cord is a thin rope.
Jack tied the sticks together with a cord.

chute and shoot
A chute is an inclined channel to convey products to a lower level.
The coal chute needed to be repaired.
When you shoot someone, you injure them with a bullet discharged from a gun.
Jeremy had been trained to shoot any intruders immediately.

Homonyms from Cents to Charred

by Lisa Binion

The majority of the following words have several definitions, so please realize that the definition I give is probably not the only one.

cents, scents, sense
A cent is 1/100th of one dollar, so cents would be more than one cent.
Heather was so broke, she couldn't even afford the pack of gum that cost only 50 cents.
Scents are distinctive odors, especially agreeable ones.
Out of all the scents that flowed throughout the crowded arena, only one of them was disagreeable.
Senses are what we use to perceive our surroundings.
Human beings have five senses.

cere, sear, seer, sere
A cere is the waxy membrane located at the base of the upper beak in certain birds through which their nostrils open.
The parrot's cere, it was discovered upon examination, had become plugged with chewing gum.
To sear is to char, burn, or scorch the surface of.
Mark's goal was to perfectly sear the hamburgers on the grill.
A seer is a clairvoyant or prophet.
The seer somehow seemed to know everything that I had ever done.
Sere means withered or dry.
Because of the recent drought, the landscape was bordered with sere vegetation.

cereal, serial
Cereal is a breakfast food made from commercially processed grain.
Sharon had trouble deciding which cereal to buy from the wide selection available on the shelves of her grocery store.
Serial describes a series of acts, usually criminal, over a perid of time.
The serial killer wasn't caught for 20 very long years.

Ceres, series
Ceres is the closest dwarf planet to the sun.
Ceres has an orbit between Mars and Jupiter.
A series is many objects or events coming in succession one right after the other.
A series of minor tremors soon led to a major earthquake.

cession, session
Cession is the surrendering of rights, property, or territory.
The cession of the property of the state's citizen's was demanded by the terrorists who took over the government.
Session is the part of the year or time of day that school takes place.
School will be in session from the first of September to the end of May.

chalk, chock
Chalk is the substance that a teacher uses to write on the blackboard.
The sound of the chalk squeaking on the blackboard sent chills down the backs of the students.
A chock is a block or wedge placed underneath something to keep it from moving.
All of the correctly shaped scraps of wood were gathered up;each one of them was to be used as a chock.

chance, chants
A chance is a set of circumstances or an opportunity that is favorable.
Robin was thankful for the once in a lifetime chance to work for the best company in her small town.
Chants are a short and simple series of words or syllables sung to a limited range of notes.
There were several chants that the monks sang without fail each day.

chard, charred
Chard is a vegetable and is normally called Swiss chard.
Chard was served as a side dish at the banquet.
Charred means burnt.
The charred piece of metal was disposed of quickly.

Homonyms from Cell to Cent

by Lisa Binion


How many of the following homonyms are you familiar with? There are an endless supply of words that sound alike, yet are spelled differently and even have different meanings in our wonderful English language. I challenge you to learn all of these words, along with their different spellings and meanings, and use them in your writing.

cell, sell
A cell is a small room or a small group.
The cell of terrorists were planning an attack on their unsuspecting allies.
When you sell something, you exchange it for some kind or money.
Are you going to sell your current automobile before you purchase another one? Or are you just going to trade it in?

cellar, seller
A cellar is a room that is at least partway underground and is usually used for the storage of food.
There was enough food in the cellar to last for several years.
A seller is one who sells things.
The seller had a very successful business at the Woolly Worm Festival each year.

censer, censor, and sensor
A censer in something you burn incense in , especially during a religious service.
The altar boy lit the censer.
A censor is one who decides what is fit to be played or shown to the general public, including children.
The censor was due to come and examine the books in the school library.
A sensor is a sense organ or a device which detects light, radiation, temperature, etc.
A sensor was placed in the area that had been bombed to see if any radiation could be detected.

census and senses
A census is a head count.
During the last census, one of the workers was brutally killed here in the backwoods of Kentucky.
People have five senses - sight, smell, hearing, taste, touch – by which we perceive stimuli from inside or outside the body.
Out of all her senses, Jenny hadn't realized how she took her sight for granted, until she lost it in a tragic accident.

cent, sent, scent
A cent is a coin, usually worth one penny.
His grocery bill totaled so much that even though he paid with a hundred dollar bill, he only received one cent in change.
When something, such as a signal is dispatched, it is sent.
Marcia sent her son to the store.
A scent is a distinctive odor, sometimes pleasant, sometimes not so pleasant.
Flowers of plants in the genus Rafflesia have the scent of decaying meat.

Homonyms from Carat to Ceiling

by Lisa Binion

With how many of the following homonyms are you familiar?

carat, caret, carrot, and karat
A carat tells the weight of a precious stone, such as a diamond or sapphire.
Melody’s boyfriend presented her with a 1 carat diamond ring when he proposed marriage to her.
A caret is the mark used by a proofreader to show where something needs to be inserted.
Cecilia's term paper was full of carets when her teacher returned it to her.
A carrot is an orange root vegetable.
Rabbits love to eat carrots.

carol and carrel
A carol is a song, especially a song of joy.
The carol is always sung at Christmas time.
A carrel is a small individual study room or private desk. These are usually in libraries and are places where a person can read or study undisturbed.
Tamara asked for a carrel to be built in her own personal library.

carpal and carpel
A carpal is a bone of the wrist.
Because of the long periods of time spent typing on the computer, Taneisha developed carpal tunnel syndrome.
Carpel is a term used in botany. It is a simple pistil or a single member of a compound pistil.
Sylvia had a great deal of trouble learning the definition of carpel for her botany class.

cast and caste
Cast means to throw.
The fishermen were told to cast their nets into the sea.
A caste is a social class.
People in the Hindu society are divided by caste.

caster and castor
A caster is a person or thing that throws.
Joshua was chosen to be the caster of the ball.
Castor is one of the less commonly known names for beaver.
The young castor was separated from its colony.

cause and caws
One of the definitions of cause is a motivation, a reason for doing something.
The cause for her rejoicing was the fantastic news her husband brought home with him.
Caws are the harsh, grating sounds made by crows.
The crows’ voracious caws disrupted the tranquility of the evening.

cay, key, and quay
I really thought this was a mistake, but I checked the pronunciation of each of the above words. They all are pronounce the same way.
A cay is a small, low island.
There are many cays off the coast of Alaska.
A key is a small metal instrument made to fit into locks and open them.
Darren had a bad habit of losing his house key, so his wife put his new key on a chain for him to wear around his neck.
A quay is a wharf.
The boat pulled up next to the quay.

cedar and seeder
A cedar is an evergreen tree, famous for its fragrant wood.
The drawers of the dresser were made out of cedar wood.
A seeder is one who sows seeds.
Marco managed to be hired on as a seeder at the city’s largest farm.

cede and seed
Cede means to yield.
Jenny did not pass her driving test because she did not cede to the stop sign.
A seed contains the embryo of a plant or vegetable.
Jenny bought some flower seeds for her garden.

ceiling and sealing
A ceiling is the top of a room.
Fred and Liz had trouble deciding if they wanted a smooth or rough ceiling.
Sealing is the homonym of ceiling. When you seal something, you close it securely.
Sealing the envelopes was a thankless job.

Building Bookcases

Starting to get a good collection of books?  Find yourself stacking them on the floor, under the bed, on the nightstand, or wherever else you can find a level place to put them?  What you need is a bookshelf!  You can go to the store to buy one easy enough, but where is the fun in that?   Build your own and some character to the home for your precious books.

When you take the time to be creative and build your own bookshelf, you discover that it can be fun.  You can be whimsical, serious, historical, ethnical, or whatever you like.  What is your favorite thing in the world?  What is your hobby?  Incorporate that into building your own bookshelf.  You do not have to be a professional carpenter to do this.

If you like the outdoors, make your bookshelf out of branches.  All you have to do is go on a hike and pick up some sturdy pieces.  Make sure that they are not rotted.  You can always cut them down if they are too long.  Try to choose some that are not too much more than two inches thick.  How tall do you want the shelves to be?  Most bookshelves are between 12 and 18 inches.  How deep do you want your shelves?  12 inches is a good depth.  Once you decide, you can begin building.  Make sure that you have a hammer, nails, twine, and saw.  Check with your local hardware store on the size of nails to use based on how thick your branches are.  

You want to build the sides to your bookcase first.  Lay down the branch(es) that will make up one side.  About one to two inches from the bottom of the branches and what will be sitting on the floor, use your hammer and nails to connect a piece of a branch horizontal to the frame.  It will look like you are building a ladder.  To reinforce it, you might want to tie some twine around the connection.  This helps to give the bookshelf a rustic look.  Measure your 12 to 18 inches that you have decided on for the height of each shelf.  Add another piece of a branch.  Continue on till you reach the top.  If you have less than a shelf height left at the top, you can use that to display knickknacks.  Once you have one side of your bookshelf complete, do the other side the exact same way.  Verify all measurements.  If the sides are not even, you books will slide and the whole thing will be wobbly.  

Lay the sides facing each other.  You now want to add the base of each shelf.  Use more branches to build that.  Nail them in to the “rungs” of the “ladder” you built.  Continue to the top.  Sit up your bookcase.  Place your books on your new shelf and enjoy.

Using branches is just one way to build your own bookshelf.  Use your imagination.  Or, you can just go to the local building supply store and pick up all the pieces.