Fic Talk > General Discussion
Writing & Thread (aka The Writing Thread 4)
RokofAges75:
Happy birthday to your dad!
If your weather is anything like it's been here, it's a perfect weekend to stay cozy and read HP! We had snow days Wednesday and Thursday because we got dumped on.
They didn't react with as much shock as I thought they would, but mostly compared Harry's age to their parents' ages. Of course, I compare Harry's age to Nick LOL. I'm sure 1992 feels so long ago to them, though. This generation now calls anything before 2000 "the 1900s." LOL. Technically they're right, but it makes me feel ancient to think I was born "in the 1900s."
Earlier in the year, though, I had a group reading the book "The Lemonade War," which came out in 2007, and they commented on how they could tell it was older because the kid in the book is saving up for an iPod, and iPods are outdated. 🤦♀️ Meanwhile, I was reading "Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing" to them, which mentions record players... but I guess record players are cool again now, so maybe that didn't seem as old-fashioned to them as iPods.
RokofAges75:
--- Quote from: ForeverFrick on February 04, 2022, 09:55:18 AM ---My earliest stuff is... quite something. :D
--- End quote ---
Speaking of those embarrassing early stories we all have, here's a question for everyone: What's something embarrassing you used to do in your writing that you don't do anymore?
I used to overuse the thesaurus on Microsoft Word. During my purple prose phase that began with Broken, I discovered the thesaurus feature and used it to pick "juicier" words for my descriptions. Sometimes I would end up with words I had never heard in context that didn't really work for what I was going for. When I come across them now with an adult's vocabulary, I cringe so much. I was just looking for a specific scene in BMS and found a sentence that describes sex as "not his most superlative love-making experience." Superlative?? 🤦♀️
I still use the thesaurus on Google Docs sometimes when I'm trying to find the perfect word, but I will only pick words I'm actually familiar with and am pretty confident I'm using correctly. Some of Google's thesaurus suggestions are pretty funny though!
RokofAges75:
Here's another question that's semi-related to my last post: How do you pronounce the word "angst"?
I had one of those "I was today years old when I learned..." moments a few weeks ago while I was listening to a podcast and heard someone use the word "angst." They pronounced it "ah-ngst," and I thought, Is that how that word is pronounced?? I googled it, and sure as shit, the first pronunciation that came up was "ah-ngst." Apparently, it's one of those words I have only read and never actually heard anyone say out loud. I have always said it with the same A sound as in "rang." But then I found a Reddit thread that offered three different pronunciations, so maybe it's one of those words with more than one accepted pronunciation? https://www.reddit.com/r/etymology/comments/mfjfwh/how_do_you_pronounce_angst/
To make matters weirder, as someone pointed out in that thread, it's a German word, which I think I knew. I took German in high school, so if I saw the word "angst" in a sentence written in German and read it out loud, I probably would pronounce it "ah-ngst" instead of using the more American-sounding "ang" sound. But I never thought to pronounce it that way when speaking/thinking in English.
So now I'm curious about how other pronounce it!
mare:
--- Quote from: ForeverFrick on February 04, 2022, 09:51:41 AM ---Happy belated birthday!! Hope it was a good one and that you got to do lots of celebrating.
I took today off work for my Dad's birthday. Nice to start the day with some hot tea and not already be on the phone or my work computer. :).
--- End quote ---
Thanks Rose!
mare:
How interesting. I pronounce it with the same a sound in bank.
Meme is the other word that people seem to pronounce different ways. I say meh-um but I know a lot of people who say mee-‘em. 🤷♀️
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