✨solembria✨

Hello, friends!
As I’ve started my MFA in Creative Writing, I’ve had the damning realization that when it comes to the basic language of writing itself, my vocabulary is nil!
Growing up in the internet age (90’s baby, woo!), with fancy autocorrect keyboards and word processors inserting punctuation where they see fit, I imagine I’m not the only writer who lost out on this. I know how to write, but I don’t know why I do it or what the names are for things I’m doing. With this in mind, I decided to get a head start on my desire to teach and write a dictionary of sorts.
You’ll notice in the title I have dubbed this dictionary nonessential—this is because none of what I’ll be sharing has been essential for my own subconscious mind to know, understand, and name to write well. But, as Ursula K. Le Guin says in Steering the Craft: A 21st Century Guide to Steering the Sea of Story (1998), “A skill is something you know how to do.” She prefaces that claim in the same way I did—when you learn a skill well enough, you don’t need to consciously think about how to do it. It’s muscle memory. And yet, I think sharpening our skills regularly is a necessity. We can’t expect a chef to never sharpen his knives and we shouldn’t expect ourselves as writers to never go back to basics.
So, without further ado, here is A (Non)Essential Writer’s Dictionary (in no particular organization, and especially not alphabetically; might as well stretch our brains out).

Rhythms: A recurring pattern of language, pacing, sentence structure, imagery, or events that creates movement and sets expectations for readers.
Example:
He opened the door.
There was a cat.
The cat meowed.
He smiled.

Counter Rhythms: The deliberate disruption of an established rhythm to create emphasis, surprise, tension, or emotional impact.
Example:
He opened the door.
There was a cat.
The cat meowed.
He smiled.
“Absolutely not, Winona! How dare you ask such a thing when cats are awful creatures who do nothing except eat and laze around!”
Note: Counter Rhythms can be used not just in prose, but in poetry, speeches, music, and even stand-up comedy.

Onomatopoeia: A word that is spelled the way it sounds.
Examples: Meow, hiss, rawr, OK

Forward Movement: The act of continual progression through a manuscript without getting stuck in editing or perfectionism.
Note: This is difficult for even seasoned writers. I, myself, am a hardened criminal if Forward Movement is a law of writing. But I’m also finding it is a useful thing to practice, because when the time comes for revisions, our first draft is going to radically change anyway. For this, we practice both Radical Acceptance and Radical Compassion for ourselves.

Pace: The speed at which a story is told, and is not necessarily the speed at which the story takes place.
Example:
Your epic fantasy story might span three years of events—your book is 160k words (even if it took you three years to write).
Note: Pacing is specific to many things, genre most importantly. Epic fantasy such as George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire is going to be much slower paced than a holiday romance like One Day in December by Josie Silver. Every genre comes with reader expectations, and pacing plays a huge role in that, so be aware of this (unless you’re being experimental, and more power to you for it).

Alliteration: Words or phrases that repeat the first consonant sound of adjacent words.
Example:
Dark doors don’t do dishes.
Fierce fighters force phobias.
Sweet pseudoscience cinder cells.
Note: Dictionaries, thesaurus, and Google are your friends for this.

Meter: Rhythmic structure of a verse or lines in poetry
Note: I included this because while meter is not used in prose, I often see stories where poems are included. Maybe a character goes to a poetry reading, or like a few of Agatha Christie’s detective novels, nursery rhymes offers a clue to a crime whether it’s in the title or directly in the prose.

Grammar: The system of rules that governs how words are arranged to form clear and meaningful sentences.
Example:
❌ Ran quickly the dog.
✅ The dog ran quickly.
Note: The linguist Octavio Paz argued that poetry is untranslatable by definition because it holds inherent meaning that other languages cannot hope to hold a candle to. I argue that prose is the same, but we must be flexible. Read widely and read well!

Syntax: Sentence structure

Adverb: A word that modifies a verb, adjective, another adverb, or an entire sentence by describing how, when, why, where, and to what extent.
Example:
Beautifully, starkly, desperately
When – Now, then, today, yesterday
Where – Here, there, everywhere
To What Extent- Quite, rather, enough
How Often – Never, sometimes
Note: A common myth is all adverbs end in -ly. This is false.
Another myth is adverbs are bad. This, too, is false.
Adverbs are useful and sometimes necessary.
But clearly, when used everywhere, rather than simply carefully choosing the mostly correct moments to add an adverb verily when needed most, they can make sentences increasingly clunky and can sometimes cause the lovely minds of even the most wonderfully loyal readers to stutter and trip while they desperately grasp for a different book.
Some writers detest them, and many of them have opinions that create myths like Kurt Vonnegut writing a book without a single adverb. The idea is to decide if there is a stronger word that can replace the adverb.
And, if you’re wondering, “lovely” is not an adverb (it is a noun or adjective)

Construction: The way a sentence is built by arranging words, phrases, and clauses.
Example: The following sentences have different constructions but communicate the same basic idea.
The raven landed on the fence.
Landing on the fence, the raven watched in silence.
It was the raven that landed on the fence.
Note: Think of words as bricks and construction as architecture. You can use the same bricks whether you want to build a house or a castle, but you’ll be arranging them differently.
Also, don’t confuse construction with grammar. Grammar has specific rules that determines whether a sentence is correct. Construction operates within those rules—you can’t build a one bedroom house and call it a castle just because they both use bricks.

Existential Construction: A sentence construction that introduces the existence or presence of something, usually beginning with “there is,” “there are,” “there was,” or “there were.”
Example:
There was a raven on the fence.
Note: The use of existential constructions can sometimes make prose less direct. By delaying the true subject with an existential construction, they can also affect pacing and emphasis.

Passive and Active Voice: The relationship between the subject and the action of the voice.
Example:
Active Voice – The raven stole the bread.
Passive Voice – The bread was stolen by the raven.
Note: Active voice emphasizes who performs the action, while passive voice emphasizes what receives the action.
Don’t confuse it with personifying an object, either.
If you can add “by whoever” to the end of the sentence and it still makes sense, it’s probably passive.
Neither is inherently better; choose the one that is right for your purpose.

Verb: A word that expresses an action, occurrence, or state of being
Example:
Action – I ran.
Occurrence – The stars appeared.
State of Being – The trail was silent.

Cadence: The rhythm and flow of a sentence created by its pattern of sounds, stresses, and pauses.
Example:
The wind whispered through the leaves, around the stones, and into the ears of villagers.
Note: Cadence is meant to be heard. If a sentence feels awkward when real aloud, try adjusting the cadence (even if the grammar is perfect).

Misplacement: A word or phrase placed too far from the word it modifies, making the meaning of the sentence unclear.
Example:
❌ She almost drove her children to school every day.
✅ She drove her children to school almost every day.
Note: A attaches itself to the wrong word rather than disappearing. I often find myself misplacing them when I’m thinking faster than my fingers can type.

Dangling Modifiers: A modifying word or phrase not clearly attached to the word it’s meant to describe.
Example:
❌ Walking through the forest, the trees looked ancient.
✅ Walking through the forest, I noticed the ancient trees.
Note: Our brains often don’t need a the dangling modifier issue to be fixed to understand the meaning. This is due to semantic context, which combines the surrounding words for our real-world known. In the above example, I know trees can’t walk when I’m taking a stroll through Forest Park. But if I’m taking a stroll with the Shepherd King in Rachel Gillig’s series of the same name, I would absolutely want the dangling modifier to be fixed. Context matters!

Conjunction: A word that connects words, phrases, clauses, or sentences.
Example: Most well-known is the acronym FANBOYS
For
And
Nor
But
Or
Yet
So
Note: FANBOYS are coordinating conjunctions, meaning both halves of the sentence can stand alone.

Conjunctivitis: Ursula K. Le Guin’s cheeky term for the overuse of conjunctions in writing
Note: Conjunctions do not cause pink eye, but may be contagious.

Similes: Comparisons using “like” or “as.”
Example:
Your smile is as bright as the sun.
Note: One of the best pieces of advice I received in undergrad is, if you are going to use a simile, make it personal. In fiction, attach it to something important to the character. In a personal essay, attach it to an important memory you have.

Metaphor: A figure of speech that describes one thing as if it were another to create meaning or comparison.
Example:
The sea is a monster.
Note: Metaphors help build atmosphere and world specific imagery better than similes, in my opinion, but I’ve been told I’m wrong more than once. Use at your own risk (apparently).

Clauses: A group of words with a subject and a predicate.
Examples:
Independent Clause – The raven landed on the fence.
Dependent Clause – Although the raven landed on the fence…
Together – Although the raven landed on the fence, Elliot didn’t notice.
Note: Not to be confused with Mr. and Mrs. Claus.

Qualifiers: A word or phrase that changes degree, certainty, or scope of a statement.
Example:
Almost
Somewhat
Nearly
Perhaps
Probably
Note: Le Guin likens them to ticks and wants us pull them out as soon as we see them, lest they suck away our responsibility for our work. Meaning, qualifiers add nuance, but overuse can make writing sound uncertain. Use them when precision matters, rather than out of habit.

Armature: A story’s underlying framework that supports and holds togethers its characters, plot, and themes.
Example: In The Lord of the Rings, the armature is the quest to destroy the One Ring. Every major event, character arc, and conflict comes back to that central framework.
Note: Other craft books refer to it as a story’s central idea, argument, or thematic question. John Truby, author of The Anatomy of Story champions that understanding of the term. In any case, it’s what the story is really about.

Predicate: The part of a sentence that expresses what the subject is, does, or experiences.
Example: The cat slept on the windowsill.
The cat is the subject, the predicate is slept on the windowsill.
Note: A sentence without a predicate is a bit like a cat without opinions—technically possible, but deeply suspicious. Weak predicates often rely on adjectives and adverbs to do the heavy lifting, while strong predicates let the verb carry more of the meaning.

Juxtaposition: The placement of two or more things side by side so that their differences, similarities, or relationship becomes more noticeable.
Example:
Children’s laughter echoed throughout the house. A coffin rested in the entryway.
Note: I use juxtaposition constantly in my own writing, especially when it comes to tone. I like creating a quiet, almost domestic image directly beside something violent or unsettling. Because I trust my imagery to do the emotional work rather than explaining the connection, I find this creates an almost cinematic effect.
P.S. I learned to do this after four years of working on a manuscript where I explained every single thing. Learn sooner rather than later!

Semantic Context: Previously mentioned, this is the context the surrounding words create that can override literal grammar.

That’s all for today, friends! I’ll update this every so often, and hopefully you’ll find some use out of it! If you have suggestions, please let me know. Also, if I’m totally wrong about something, let me know that as well!

See you next time!