About Me

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A writer by predilection, an aunt by blessing and a friend by choice, Shelley has spent many years journaling before sitting down to draft her first novel. She has a B.A. in English discourse and is currently working on her third romantic-suspense, the title of which will be announced soon pending publication. Shelley is a member of the Romance Writers of America as well as her RWA state chapter of the Maryland Romance Writers.
"I love story-telling. It's a way to live an experience through the eyes of a character." - Shelley N. Greene

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

O is for ONOMATOPOEIA


               "Holy polysyllabic Greek words, Batman!"


            A long fancy word, Onomatopoeia is the BOOM! BAM! POW! of writing.  Simply put, it’s the spelling out of sounds.  

            Oddly, I catch myself tossing out onomatopoeic words all the time.  In an earlier entry I told you that my learning curve tends to make me “go splat.”  When I rule out or cite something, I refer to it as getting dinged. 

            I’ve gonged options that don’t appeal to me. 

Hit it, Chuck. 
(image source)
             
           And the great part about onomatopoeia is that you don’t have to wield a striker or don a batsuit to use it.


I believe writers utilize onomatopoeia pretty effectively, plus we have an official weird license—a get-out-of-funny-looks card for when we have to perform unusual research or ask strange questions.  Or, say, drop an inexpensive ceramic platter out a window to document what kind of breaking sound it makes.  I’m just using that as—you know—*cough*—a random example. 

Okay, moving on…

            I did have another onomatopoeia experiment just this week.  One of my characters is going to get a little beat up in the not-too-distant future (please see C is for CONFLICT for rights to character provocation), and I needed to know what being hit with a saucepan sounded like. 


Yes, I’m a bully.  Luckily that’s part of the author package, too.

            Sooo, I moseyed downstairs to the kitchen, notepad in hand; weird license at the ready, to discover in what ways a saucepan could Ka-DONG!   


            I'll say that, similar to entertainment street acts, a crowd forms quickly when you're inexplicably beating on Revere Ware.  Within five minutes my cat, little niece and sister were all in attendance as I noted the various dongs result from hitting the pan with:  a serving spoon, a small melon, the bulb end of a turkey baster… (It’s surprisingly difficult to replicate a human noggin.)

     
    Granted the cat was drawn in by the funny noises, staying with the expectation that tuna would miraculously appear.  Little Niece was there to pet the cat.
       
              My sister was there to laugh at me. 

                          
And so is the beauty of onomatopoeia.   

                       
*Note: No siblings, nieces, felines, fruit or turkey basters were harmed in the making of this blog.


            Please join me tomorrow—P is for PLOT.


            Goodnight!  :0)

8 comments:

  1. Great post! I wrote about the same word today. :)

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    1. Thank you! I really enjoyed yours, as well! Clever word play. Great job. :0)

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  2. This was one of my favorite words growing up. That and oligarchy. Something about the O.

    Visiting from AtoZ
    Von L
    The Growing Writer

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    1. Oo, oligarchy is good - that's one you don't hear too often. Thanks for stopping by! ;0)

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  3. No handy male person to volunteer his head? Great word. I'm trying to visit all the A-Z Challenge Blogs this month. My alphabet is at myqualityday.blogspot.com

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    1. Hahaha! I tried, there were no takers. I couldn't sell them on the "concussions can be fun" pitch.

      Thanks for stopping by - I've added you to my blog-follow list. :0)

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  4. Very cute post! I'm glad I wandered over. Wow, I actually remember that Gong SHow!. I'm over from A to Z so pop on by of you like. Cheers. (Catherine Stine's Idea City)

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    1. Aw, thank you. I was hoping to keep it funny, I'm glad you liked. I was a big NICK AT NITE junkie when I was younger, I loved watching The Gong Show and the Monkees. I think I heard somewhere that there's a new Gong Show out now, but I don't know if can compare. The original seemed like the best. :0)

      So nice meeting you! I've added your blog to my follow list and I look forward to seeing you.

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