A MIllion Reasons to Write

It’s official, yes, as of June 10th, we have one millions words in the English language. Web 2.0, according to Global Language Monitor, is considered part of our language since it’s been used over 25,000 times. New words soon to added are defollow, noob, and defriend.
With one million words to work with, you’d think our job would be soooo easy. Then why does finding that perfect verb keeps us awake all night? And when that long-sought-after adjective that describes the glow in your hero’s eyes finally hits, you damn near wreck the car scribbling it on a McDonald’s napkin.
Arranging and rearranging words is like working on a jigsaw puzzle. Some days the pieces seem to fall into place, other times it’s like hammering the word till it fits. But, it’s a beautiful thing when it all comes together.
I have found the vast information contained in online dictionaries staggering. They specialize in everything from ballet to sexual terms. Sometimes, I get so overwhelmed, I reach for my trusty hard-covered Webster’s College Dictionary.
A while back, Christine was searching for a word. She wanted a ‘breathy’ word for her hero. How about bronchovesicular? Bronchovesicular (adjective): relating to the air passages and vesicles of the lungs. Bronchovesicular breath sounds consist of a full inspiratory phase with a shortened and softer expiratory phase.
Talk about a buzz kill. That word wouldn’t even fit in a medical romance.
As writers we need to reach beyond our comfort zone and try new words and phrases. More than anything, we need to keep up with our readers in this ever changing world.
Above all else, keeping writing, after all, we’ve got a million words to work with!