From Agents to Zeugma: An A–Z Guide to Writing Words

by Tammy Karasek @TickledPinkTam

For many of us writers, this year has been, well—a little rough. I know of many struggling through health issues, losses of all kinds and various other reasons they may be unfocused or unable to write a lot during this time. I’ve talked to a few close writing friends of late, and see a recurring theme, myself included, and that would be the struggle to write. Life is pulling us all over and when the time comes to sit and write, words elude us. 

This summer I’m going through a God directed pivot in my writing and writing work, and I’m not completely on board with all of it—yet! Doubts and questions have risen to a bubbling point. To be honest, it has me at the bus stop for the struggle bus far too often of late. I’m generally a positive person—and definitely one who loves to giggle as much as possible—so I thought I’d share something with my fellow writers here who may have drooping chins. The project below will be a quick and fun little game to make you think. 

Let’s have some fun and play “A Writer’s ABCs.” I enjoyed putting this list together, and I’m positive all you talented writers out there will be able to add to my list. Please play along and make this list even longer.

Share a word corresponding to each letter of the alphabet in the comments section below. They need to be writing or writing industry related. See how many more terms you can add. We might find ourselves having to do a little research on some words we’ve not come across in our writing journey yet, I know I did with a couple I’ve put on the list! 

A to Z of Writing: Creative Terms and Ideas for Writers

A – agents, archetype, antagonist, acquisitions, alliteration.

B – brainstorming, bylines, bios, blogging, beats.

C – caffeine, chocolate, coaching, connections, critiques, conferences.

D – deadlines, deleting, dictionary.

E – editors, edits, engagement, editing, eBook, excel.

F – friendship, fiction, flash-fiction

G – genre, galleys.

H – hybrid, historical.

I – Independent, ISBN.

J – jargon, journal.

K – keywords.

L – learn, lingo. 

M – manuscript, metaphor.

N – nonfiction, novel, novella, noun.

O – online, outline.

P – premise, publishing, platform, protagonist, plot, POV, panster, proposals.

Q – query, questions, quantifiers.

R – romance, reading, rewrite.

S – synopsis, suspense, subplot, speculative, Scrivener.

T – thesaurus, tags, trope, theme.

U – update, understatement.

V – value-added, voice, vocabulary, verb.

W – writing, write, writer, Word.

X – Xenophanic (for real writing term!).

Y – YOU (only YOU can answer YOUR calling to write YOUR story).

Z – Zoom!, Zzzzs (need your rest), Zeugma (look it up!).

Those are some I have come up with. What else would you add to the list? Let’s have some fun!

TWEETABLE

From Agents to Zeugma: An A–Z Guide to Writing Words from @TickledPinkTam on @EdieMelson (Click to Tweet)

Tammy Karasek uses humor and wit to bring joy and hope to every aspect in life. Her past, filled with bullying and criticism from family, drives her passion to encourage and inspire others and give them The Reason to smile. She’s gone from down and defeated to living a “Tickled Pink” life as she believes there’s always a giggle wanting to come out! A writer of Romance—with a splash of sass. She’s also The Launch Team Geek helping authors launch their books and also a Virtual Assistant for several best-selling authors. Don't miss her recent book, LAUNCH THAT BOOK, just released in November. 

Her work was also published in a Divine Moments Compilation Book—Cool-inary Moments. She’s also the Social Media Manager for the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference, Founding President and current Vice-President of ACFW Upstate SC, and Founding President of Word Weavers Upstate SC. She’s a writing team member for The Write Conversation Blog, Novel Academy, MBT Monday Devotions, The Write Editing and more. Connect with Tammy at HTTPS://WWW.TAMMYKARASEK.COM.