It's Amazing, you can make Steven King cringe.
Steven King has written hundreds of books and articals that have creeped out millions of people. They've taken place in New England towns and featured cars with a mind of their own, dogs with rabies, bullied teenagers, strange mists that engolf towns, and even clowns.
He knows what bothers and scares us, But it's not these things that bother Steven King and keep him up at night. It's words...words that are misused, overused, and confused.
Every once in a while he gets so upset with a word that he announces that it should not be used until it regains the richness and meaning that it deserves by being the only word that fits. He says the word is over used to the point that it has no punch left. It is no longer exciting, demanding of thought, or encourages action.
Recently Mr. King announced that a word should be avoided at all costs because it no longer gave special meaning. That word is AMAZING.
Think about it. How many time have you hears things discribed as amazing when other words would have given your meaning more credibility. What makes 15 dog tricks in a half an hour TV show Amazing? What makes an icecream cone, photograph, movie, gadget or story Amazing?
Not to leave you out in the cold without a word to replace your beloved Amazing, Mr. King offers this list of word to choose from to fulfill the cavity left from the elimination of the word Amazing.
You should find the more appropriate word in the following list.
adorable, alluring, ambrosial, astonishing, asounding, awe-inspiring, awesom, beautcous, beautiful, bewitdching, beyond words, blue-ribbon, bonny, breathtaking, brilliant, capital, captivating, charming, classy, darling, daunting and dazzling.
delectable, delicate, delicious, delightful, divine, elegant, enchanting, enthralling, enticing, ethereal, exalted, excellent, exceptional, exhilarating, exquisite, extraordinary, fabulous, and fantastic.
facinating, fearsome, fetching, first-class, first-rate, glorious, gorgeous, graceful, grand, heavenly, ideal,impressive, incomparable, inconceivable, incredible,indescribable, ineffable, inspiring, irresistible, lovely, luscious, magnetic, magnificent and majestic.
marvelous, mesmerizing, outstanding, prodigious, radiant, rapturous, ravishing, refined, resplendent, savory, scrumptious, sensual, sexy, shocking and spectacular.
splendid, staggering, striking, stunning, stupefying, sub lime, superb, supreme, suprising, tantalizing, thrilling, top-notch, trancendent, tremendous, unbelievable, unearthly, unutterable, uplifting, wonderful, wonderous and yummy.
Is there a word out there that you overuse, use as a crutch, use when you can't think of anything else. Don't take shortcuts to mediocrity. Writing is a large part of your job now. Lets write to make others react to an idea, but try not to make Steven King cringe.
Recent Comments
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Great post, I copied it off to keep it handy for future reference. I think all of us have words we overuse. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
Very interesting blog! Did you come up with that alphabetical list of adjectives yourself?!
Maybe we should add 'Awesome' to 'Amazing'
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fantastic and awesome are good runners-up Richie!