Quiet Rebel Writer

Welcome to the week, gentle readers! Sure, it’s rainy, foggy, and otherwise crappy here in Chicago. But I’m feeling optimistic anyway. It’s almost April and officially spring, even if Chicago spring doesn’t kick in until June. I’m in a new office that is just rad. I let myself sleep in this morning because, well, I can. And I’ve got a nice workload going.

Usually our Monday date is a creative kick in the arse when it’s sorely need. Writing can feel like a chore on these days. Any work, no matter your field, no matter your regular level of passion and interest, can feel like a slog. To break free, I (and you, my captive audience) look for some inspiration. I find it in good writing, whether it’s from books, songs, films, or magazines. I find it in other forms of creativity, like moving art. The point is to remind me what’s possible, what’s so kickass about this job, and why I should keep creating.

Today’s Monday date is a special treat. I’ve been sorely lax on another blog appointment due to the disarray that moving can bring to one’s life. It occurred to me today that this regular column, one I’ve neglected to offer in recent weeks, can also serve as inspiration and a creative push. There’s nothing like focusing on something so basic as the ingredients of our daily speech and writing. So let’s do this. Let’s make our Monday date a medley of columns, and incorporate the one, the only, word porn.

New to word porn? Check out the previous entries into this brave new world. Ready for this week’s addition? Read on.

Ruddy

A word after my own heart, and head. It evokes English novels of the past, books you’d read in high school and college and find a whole wealth of words that defied understanding, but sounded cool anyway. Ruddy denotes the color red, or a healthy reddish color, and in current British lingo, can often be transposed for “bloody.” Hmm. Can we have the word in a sentence please? “’Ruddy marvelous, my ruddy hair matches my ruddy face!’ James said. His friends rolled their eyes and continued their conversation about the state of the economy, long used to James’ perplexing and annoying habit of pretending intimate knowledge of all things British, despite his nasal midwestern accent.”

Inveterate

Inveterate is a delightful combination of syllables meaning habitual, firmly established, and confirmed in habit. Interesting. Sentence? “Since Larry was an inveterate liar, his friends did not believe his claim of making out with Kathleen Turner circa Romancing the Stone, especially since he was in elementary school at the time.”

Abscond

Ooo la la. This word just sounds saucy. And I do like the words that start with A. must derive from playing too many of those awful icebreaker games, when you had to choose an apt descriptor that started with the same letter of your name. I could never come up with a decent one. This one wouldn’t really apply either, but still fun. Abscond means to secretly leave and hide. Let’s give it a spin. “Laura could deal with her boyfriend absconding to Wyoming with her cousin and her car. She could even deal with the stolen cash from her purse. But leaving with her entire collection of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel DVDs was just low.”

Voila! Hope you enjoyed this Monday merge of Creative Kick and Word Porn. Enjoy the week, and keep on reading.