Some days blog topics tumble out of my brain and into my coffee cup, often resembling mountains of thoughts, but today I don’t have one blog topic in my brain or in my coffee cup, or anywhere else, it would seem. I did nothing of consequence this weekend, am not annoyed at anything, and the weather is seasonably pleasant. I am not really blogless, rather idea-less. Is that even a word? If not, it should be, but my kids would probably interpret that as brainless and who knows what would happen then?
I don’t think there is really anything wrong with being idea-less, but it is a rarity for me. My brain is usually boiling over with insignificant stuff like likes and dislikes and things I need to do or not do, but today it’s not. For that matter, this morning, I have little rolling around my brain, either significant or insignificant, and if any significant stuff happens to be there, I can’t remember anyway. Today, I’m reasonably content and my wayward right knee is behaving itself and I’m looking forward to another fun-filled day in front my computer.
But maybe since there is nothing critical for me to share, I should tell you about one of my favorite words, jabber, which is what I apparently am doing now. Don’t you think “jabber” is a good word, one of those words that we don’t hear much (which is good because the tech folk types might steal it, too). It is fun to say and fun to read, similar to the work “yank,” another fun word. I think it is the combo of the consonants that sends me into alphabet ecstasy.
This week somebody sent me a list of words that are synonyms to the word “said,” listing 280 variations of “said,” starting alphabetically with “acknowledged” and ending with “yelled.” I don’t see that “yelled” and “said” are synonyms, but they both indicate some sort of communication. The experts tell me that the word “said” is a “non-word,” and readers don’t even look at it, while the word “yammer” can bring complicated things to mind, and readers get snagged on it, instead of digesting the whole thought. I like different words, so I’ll continue to use “jabber,” and “yammer,” and even “thundered” to get my point across. Great words. In my humble opinion, the experts don’t know what they’re talking about. The word “said” is a fine word, but as a writer, I think my job is to say what I have to say in the most interesting manner. And sometimes, “said” doesn’t hack it. If a character is elated or angry, wouldn’t he or she “cackle” or “shriek?”
The fun thing about writing is that I get to think about words. The English language contains a quarter of a million words, all created from arranging and rearranging the twenty-six letters in the alphabet. Jabbering is just one and I like it.
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