Saturday, April 13, 2013

Poetic License


Okay, so here’s the problem, occasionally I make up words. John’s been reading some chapters in my novel. Last night he got to the part where I described the slanted ceiling in an attic bedroom. Slopey, I called it. 

He said, “What’s this? Are you making up words? Do you have a poetic license? Where is it? Show me your Poetic License!” Yes, friends, he was yelling. Hence, the exclamation point. 

So I said, “It's in my wallet with my Creative License and Drivers License!” 

We both enjoy being loud. 

He suggested that I use sloped or sloping. How boring. You’d think he was an architect or something.

Spelling is not my strong suit, nor is punctuation. My spelling problem is helped by Google. I type in my word with bad spelling—up pops the correct spelling. Very helpful. However, sometimes my aging brain forgets the word I was trying to spell before Google opens.

My book club, Potpourri Book Club, (I just Googled potpourri for the spelling) read The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin last month. It’s a wonderful novel. Amanda Coplin used her creative license, and wrote the book without any quotation marks. Intentionally. It makes the book quiet. Voices whisper when they aren’t surrounded by quote marks.

In 2005, the late Shel Silverstein wrote a children’t book, Runny Babbit: A Billy Sook. John’s been switching the beginnings of words since I met him. Intentionally. It's called Spoonerisms after William Archibald Spooner. Here’s one John found on line: Let me show you to your seat,  would read as Let me sew you to your sheet.

Examples of John's spoonerisms: 

  • he wants a new Sable Taw for his workshop, 
  • he likes Dot Hogs for dinner,
  • when warm weather finally comes, he’ll Wake a Talk around the neighborhood. 

I want to see his Poetic License!

I just checked the Urban Dictionary. You should always check the Urban Dictionary when you think you’ve created a new word. “Slopey” means a protruding mass of flesh, like droopy male breasts. They can also be described as slopies. Guess I won’t use that to describe the attic ceiling.


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