: Re: Coining words - when and how? Writing an answer to another question, I stumbled upon a quote from The Hobbit: Bilbo rushed along the passage, very angry, and altogether bewildered and bewuthered

Necessity, whether artistic or otherwise would be a common impulse for coining a word.

I never thought I would need to, but I ended up coining a word in my current work. I needed a word with the right shade of meaning, sound and feel and could not find it. I was certain the word existed, one of those delightful and colourful regional words, but when I googled it, nothing.

I found myself creating a word with a strong regional flavour and the intensity of meaning that I desired. I had the character reflect on how his grandfather had been astonished that he had not known that this word meant such, so added the definition in the same paragraph.

Should an editor ever tell me it isnâ€™t a word, well, it is now.

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: You do it by limiting the narrator's gaze. You can describe things from the point of view of one or more characters, who haven't yet figured out the secret identities of the celebrity characters.

@Sue2132873

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: Peaks are defined by the space in between People, as a general rule, are much better at comparing things than they are at measuring absolutes. That's why we don't measure pain in kilo-ouches,

@Sue2132873

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: Does this scene fail the Bechdel test? My novel has approximately a dozen women in it, but they donâ€™t tend to talk to each other. Most of them are separated geographically or philosophically

@Sue2132873

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: What is meant by "purposeful, habitual, and gratuitous" actions? In his "Characters" essay, Samuel R. Delany purports there are three types of actions to characters: "purposeful, habitual, and gratuitous."

: Re: Coining words - when and how? Writing an answer to another question, I stumbled upon a quote from The Hobbit: Bilbo rushed along the passage, very angry, and altogether bewildered and bewuthered

More posts by @Sue2132873

: You do it by limiting the narrator's gaze. You can describe things from the point of view of one or more characters, who haven't yet figured out the secret identities of the celebrity characters.

: Peaks are defined by the space in between People, as a general rule, are much better at comparing things than they are at measuring absolutes. That's why we don't measure pain in kilo-ouches,

: Does this scene fail the Bechdel test? My novel has approximately a dozen women in it, but they donâ€™t tend to talk to each other. Most of them are separated geographically or philosophically

: What is meant by "purposeful, habitual, and gratuitous" actions? In his "Characters" essay, Samuel R. Delany purports there are three types of actions to characters: "purposeful, habitual, and gratuitous."

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