Crutch words – Angry (part 3)

 

You thought I had forgotten those, didn’t you? Hah!  Plot twist!

This is the third part of my list of synonyms for ANGRY. You can find part one here and part two here. As always, a synonym doesn’t mean you can replace angry with any of these words. So if you choose any of them over angry, make sure you are absolutely certain it conveys the right meaning.

Crutch words – ANGRY (part 2)

This is the second part of my list of ANGRY synonyms. You can find part one here. I have to admit, while researching for these, I often had to pause and double-check (and sometimes triple-check) that they were in fact still in use or that they actually meant what I was looking for. Bellicose and Churlish are two of the words I had never seen before, but then again, I’m not a native English speaker, so that may be the reason.

Keep in mind that each synonym, is just that; a synonym. It doesn’t always work as a replacement, because each word carries a meaning of its own. So before you substitute all instances of angry with any of these or from part one, make sure it’s the right one.

Crutch words – ANGRY (part 1)

For a writer, drafting a story is all about putting all the thoughts down on paper (or virtual paper) as fast as possible. Often, if not always, this comes at a price. Drafts are messy. They often make us cringe when we read them. Why? For many reasons, but one of them is because we use words that are always the same boring ones, which most of the times break one of the sacred rules of writing: show, don’t tell. One such word is ANGRY. Below is a small list (more words to follow in the coming weeks) of synonyms that we can use instead. As is always the case with synonyms, each word carries a unique inherent meaning, so even though each is a synonym to angry, they don’t always serve as a replacement. Make sure you’re absolutely certain that the word you’re about to use carries the meaning you have in mind.

You can read part two here.

On a side note, I think I have failed miserably in my attempt to make the colour of the word angry like that of Hulk’s. Not only that, but the font is wrong. *sigh* It shows how little I know about typography and how much I have to work on it.

Crutch words – WENT (part 2)

You didn’t think I forgot part 2 for this crutch word, did you? In case you missed part 1 you can find it here.

When we draft our stories, we want to get them out as fast as possible. Which tends to make things sloppy and messy. Non-writers, don’t get us wrong. It’s a need all writers have; get the story out of our heads immediately. Unfortunately, this comes at a price.

Crutch words.

When we finish our first draft, we haven’t exactly “written” anything. Technically, we have, but practically, well… it’s not readable. When we draft a story, what we’re really doing is putting our thoughts down. Writing comes after we’re finished with the first draft. That’s when we have to turn our drafts into something that won’t hurt the eyes (or the minds) of our readers. Part of this process involves removing crutch words.

One such crutch word is the past tense of the verb go (went). We love using it (and other crutch words), because it’s always available and it does the job. The thing is, readers want more than a word that just does the job. The problem with went is that it’s not descriptive enough. And so, we have a huge list of synonyms to consider. Below, is a small list of some of the available synonyms for WENT. Keep in mind that every synonym has a meaning of its own, so make sure you use the right word. And yes, I know there are more synonyms available. I will cover those in future posts.