Quick 'n' Dirty Writing Exercise: Words, Words, Words

The Forever Workshop Community Corner 3.5.25

Well hello again, lovely workshoppers.

Brand new month, brand new workshop series, and we have the absolute delight of Erin Karbuckzky’s Lessons from Taylor Swift’s Creative Process to see us through March.

I am so serious. Even if you’ve never listened to a single Taylor Swift song, I promise that there is some Good Shit to be found in these lessons — an absolute banquet of exercises and prompts to help you hone your own creative process.

(And if you’re a total TS hater, just take the techniques and apply them to your own personal favourite artist.)

There are so many great resources for building your creative process to in Lesson 1 alone, but if you’re just lookin’ for quick ‘n’ dirty writing exercise today, let me borrow this little exchange on Taylor’s favourite words to entice you:

Paul McCartney: …so you’d see the word in a book and think, “I love that word”?

Taylor Swift: Yeah, I have favorite words, like “elegies” and “epiphany” and “divorcée,” and just words that I think sound beautiful, and I have lists and lists of them.

McCartney: How about “marzipan”?

Swift: Love “marzipan.”

McCartney: The other day, I was remembering when we wrote “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds”: “kaleidoscope.”

Swift: “Kaleidoscope” is one of mine! I have a song on 1989, a song called “Welcome to New York,” that I put the word “kaleidoscope” in just because I’m obsessed with the word.

I mean, we’re all obsessed with words, right? We’re writers. Surely you can relate?

So I have two questions for you. One is easy. The other is… slightly less easy. But well worth sharing and thinking about!

Question 1:

What are your top three favourite words of all time? The ones that make your ears tingle and give you a little shiver when you say them out loud.

(Mine are carapace, dirigible and malevolent.)

Bonus points if you can include them in your WIP this week ;)

Share yours in the comments:

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Question 2:

And on the flip-side, because I can’t help but keep my editor hat on: are there any words or phrases you tend to overuse in your writing?

Do your character habitually roll their eyes or smirk or yawn?

Is every blue tone “cerulean”?

Does everything happen suddenly?

Look, we all have our own unique writerly tics and tendencies — which actually adds personality to our work — but it’s also worth keeping an eye on repetitions before they get out of hand… Or your editor will flag them up for you ;)

So, what are yours?

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And in celebration of Erin’s fantastic workshop, I’ll leave you with an appropriate musical interlude…