It’s a sunny day! Not a tremendously warm one, but I’ll take it. There’s snow in the forecast for tomorrow. Hopefully, we’ll just get stuck with more rain. On the plus side, the grass is getting green. Allergies should be full blown within the week.
Today’s letter is the letter O. There are several words that come to mind for this in my writing: onomatopoeia, words that imitate sound, like bang, boom, crash, oxymoron, when two opposite words are used together like pretty ugly, and military intelligence, and omicron, as in the latest variant of the global pandemic. All three of these words have impacted my writing, some more than others.
Let’s consider omicron first. I made a conscious decision to include the pandemic and its impact on our lives in my writing. Depending on when the book was written, there are references to making, social distancing, closures, capacity limits, etc. I found it difficult to draft stories without including them because I don’t believe we’ll be going back to the old normal anytime soon. I still wear my mask when I go into stores. I’m uncomfortable and avoid crowded social situations and have yet to feel comfortable enough to resume in-person worship or travel outside the country. So, if you pick up a book authored by me during the last two years, chances are there will be refences to the pandemic in it. At the moment, Ontario, where I live, is in its sixth wave of the pandemic, thanks to the omicron variant.
The second o word I’ll discuss is onomatopoeia. Words that sound like the sound they make. I’ve used several in all my books. Anything from a sentence like, “Waves crashed against the shore.” or “The bell tinkled my arrival.” or even “I did the cha-ching dance when I looked at my bank balance. (Cha-ching being the sound made by a cash register.)
Finally, we’ll talk about oxymorons. These are contradictory terms used together for effect. Who hasn’t had a bittersweet moment? Have you ever ordered jumbo shrimp? What about discovering that something is your only option? Other examples include: awfully good, climb down, close distance, grow smaller, original copy, seriously funny, passive-aggressive, same difference, small crowd, and of course, virtual reality.
That’s it for O. Come back tomorrow for P. Check out the other O posts here. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nuoAOJ-BUAXE1Yl2yIArhUHInj902PHVX6_gL4oKiSo/edit#gid=1195767304
Living the Dream 