You know those tempting Book Club offers? Buy 10 for a $1 each plus shipping and you only have to purchase 3 in the next year! Some of them are pretty great. This is where I got my giant dictionary and Roget’s Thesaurus. That’s how I’ve aquired many of my reference books because I never can justify paying full price for them at the bookstore. Which is foolish because I use both of these books more than any other book I own. They would have been well worth the full purchase price.

I wonder if Peter Mark Roget's (1779-1869) book is the longest selling book next to the Bible? Published in 1852, it continues to serve as the top resource for those devoted to using the English language effectively.

Need ideas for your novel? You don’t have one started but you need an idea for a book? Pick up a good sized Thesaurus. I use a large hard cover Roget’s International Thesaurus 5th Edition. It’s thumb indexed, its great. Flip through a book this size and start reading. It’s so inspiring. Words lead to more words and more words. Meanings and descriptions and images cruise through your imagination. It's very thought provoking.

For example: I thumb through and find the word “full-blooded”.
Under full-blooded - strong, upper-class, wellborn.

So I look up those three words:
Under strong I find - strong man, stalwart, tower of strength, and even “hunk.”

Under upper-class - aristocratic, bourgeois, genteel, highborn.

Under wellborn - nobel, regal, chivalrous, exalted.

There is a place for common words and you do not want to over-use descriptive words. A thesaurus helps you to use the perfect word when you need to.

Read the following example. Which sounds more descriptive, which gets your point across?

“The events that had transpired in the last week, really confused the hard working mother.”

  or

“The events that had transpired in the last week, unsettled the hard working mother.”

or try - baffled, perplexed, disconcerted, threw into chaos, rattled, bewildered, disconcerted, or mortified. They all drum up different feelings and images. How exactly do you want her to feel? Choose the right word.

A dictionary and a thesaurus is a “great read” for the down time when you don’t feel like writing or you are stumped for the right word. Or should I say confounded or thwarted or foiled?

© Julie Howell