Spunk & Bite A Writer's Guide to Punchier, more engagings language & Style by Arthur Plotnik

Spunk and Bite A writer's guide to punchier, more engagings language and Style. by Arthur Plotnik


This book is about how to put fire into your words. Change them from common things like blue and building to cerulean and tower. Make the castle a monstrous edifice and the suit concrete specked gray.


It invites you to change your language, sound less ordinary, and add some bite. Speak with the diction of a street hustler or Generation Y.


Pay attention to your language; maybe use a thesaurus to find new words apart from the ordinary; or use a visual dictionary to learn all the parts of that boat you are writing about.


Maybe you need a little onomatopoeia to give your character some squishiness, bang, or explosiveness. Make your novel sound the like the world around you. No dull sentences filled with the ordinary every day grey.


Arthur Plotnik gives you permission to use sentence fragments when it adds spice: to use foreign terms like udon or caramba: and even shows you how to create your own words. Isn't that just swish.


He wants you to use less common adverbs, burble and bubble with neologisms, and write with force and character.


Use of language allows you to rise out of the common slush pile and onto the editors desk. Break the rules of grammar if you need to sound interesting. Use non-standard formatting for dialogue. Make your language flow with feng shui; all the pieces opening and closing properly.


The only parts that didn't flow too well for me were the sections on grammar; what is the point of the colon and semicolon. I don't know, the sections on words were much better. Also, I found his writing on sentence structure to be a bit tedious. Read this book to learn about words and how to use them.


This is a book about language and making writing come alive. The book is quite lively and readable. You might even call it entertaining. I think it might help the writer who needs to add some color and vividness to their writing. Read it if you want to add a little Spunk & Bite to your writing.


Arthur Plotnik is the author of The Elements of Editing

Good Morning, New Years Resolutions

The incomparable Dr. Seuss (Ted Geisel) drawing How The Grinch Stole Christmas

Good Morning

I had a nice holiday at the relatives. No reading yesterday and a little bit too much to eat. I watched Happy Feet on dvd yesterday which was light entertainment. It was pleasant fun. I also got lost on the freeway home for an hour. Google Maps didn't turn out too well for me. The last time we used Mapquest and were only lost for fifteen minutes. I think I prefer Mapquest online for finding directions.

I am heading in to work this morning. I have to spend some time learning how to use the Baker & Taylor ordering system a little better. I think my day is going to be rather busy. I am finding it very easy to use. The entry of orders is quite fast.

On the train in to work, I read some more of Spunk and Bite. The book is about how to use words much more effectively. Sound effects (bang! zoom!) , using foreign words (umami), and even creating new words were covered in separate chapters (bloggerific you blogerati).

I especially liked this quote, "something will stimulate you if you continue reading." Surprisingly, I found a few moments of reverie where I closed the book and looked at the ceiling pondering the meaning of what was written.

Two books which I had on hold came in through interchange, James P. Blaylock, The Knights of the Cornerstone and A New And Expanded Woe Is I, The Gramarphobes Guide To Better English In Plain English, Plus A Word To The Wired-- A Whole New Chapter On Language In the Age of Email by Patricia T. O'Conner.
New Years Resolutions

1. Get organized, much more organized in all three aspects of organization: tidiness, time management, and planning for results both in my professional and personal life.
2. Write every single day in my blog if possible. Improve my writing skills in both nonfiction and poetry in the process.
3. Lose weight and get in shape. This is per my doctors orders. I have to take off the weight. Specifically lose 5 lbs ever two weeks, 10 pounds a month for the next six months. Do yoga and walk a bit every single day.
4. Enjoy the coming year. Make sure I spend enough time with family and friends.
5. Keep my finances in better order. Keep better records, and try to be more frugal. I still have not gotten my hands around the coupons concept very well.
6. Attend a number of professional conferences. Make new contacts, learn something new at the conferences.

Good Afternoon

Ivan Kramskoy. Portrait of Leo Tolstoy. 1873. Oil on canvas. The Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia

Good Afternoon

Today was another half day. I read a bunch of magazines, Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and Library Journal. It was mostly typical material. I also prepared some more orders to go out for different kinds of books. It went fairly smoothly. On P.19, December 22, 2008 in Publishers Weekly, there is an article about Sony ebooks. Apparently, they sold 300,000 Sony ebook readers this year. The e-ink technology is changing the way ebooks are being read. There are still no figures for the Amazon Kindle ebook reader that have come out. But, this means there are going to be a lot more ebooks produced. Apparently Oprah Winfrey has come out in support of the Kindle ebook reader.

We have the new agreement for film permisions to show movies during the next year. There will be Sunday matinees coming up for family films. There also will probably be young adult films as well. Also, everything is in place in the calendar for January- February. I am still wondering about the new brochure being produced.

I had a chance to read some more of Spunk & Bite. The book is about how to improve your expressiveness and descriptive phrases so far. For example, you might say cerulean blue, or create a surprising phrase like tiny hamhanded man, or chocolate brown notebook, or savage hamster. There are reminders about style and diction. I try to keep my diction my own, not high handed or high minded in the least.

I find something particularly annoying about thesauri. It reminds me of teenage vocabularly building books. I often think it is more important to make your children read the classics to improve vocabulary than rely on pedantic lists of prosaic words. The best way to improve ones vocabulary is to read constantly. I read the advertisements on the subways, the contents of food packages (one of the main ingredients in many brands of bread these days is high fructose corn syrup), newspapers, the internet, community bulletin boards, and many other things.

The Society of Midnight Wanderers is no more. Psalms From The Wilderness http://jdrbeaudoin.wordpress.com/ told me it had gone defunct. It is one of the first places that I had posted a book review outside of my blog.

I am thinking of putting a list of links to favorite authors on my blog in the sidebar. Could you tell me if you would like this? It is something I have been thinking of for a while.

Good Afternoon

Lady Ise, Japanese Court Poet

This morning on the way to work, I finished reading Copyediting and Proofreading For Dummies by Suzanne Gilad. The last section was about working as a copyrighter or proofreader. It is not something which I plan on doing anytime soon. However, they had an excellent example of a freelancers invoice which I might use somewhere else. Also, they gave some good tips on how to build clientele if you are working on your own.

I found the book quite interesting. There is of course a reminder to not eat while you are editing a document, no one likes food stains on their work. At the library we find a variety of things in books; food stains, dollar bills, old photographs, bookmarks, credit cards, and bus passes. I am going to add to the not eating part. Please don't read a library book in the bathtub. Soaked books are no fun.

If you want to get a better understanding of what an editor or proofreader does this book is quite good. I can recommend it highly.

I spent a little bit of time this morning compiling patron requests for items at our library. I also filled in for someone at the morning reference desk.

On the train home, I plan on reading Spunk & Bite A writer's guide to punchier, more engaging language & style by Arthur Plotnik.

I have read the opening of chapter of Spunk & Bite. It starts with the argument of the descriptivists versus the proscriptivists. Descriptives believe that language gains its relevancy from actual use. Grammar and structure should reflect how people currently use language. Proscriptivists believe grammar should follow proscribed fixed rules of use.

I tend towards the descriptivist side; maybe this is because I am good at describing things clearly, but am prone to make mistakes according to proscribed rules. This might also be the story of my life. If I follow what I think is right, I often succeed better than if I follow the "letter of the law."

Daily Thoughts

Robert Frost on a Postage Stamp.

Daily Thoughts

Although, I finished reading Guerrilla Negotiating, I don't think I am going to review it. I'm beginning to realize some of the material I am reading lately is a bit off topic for most people who are reading the blong. I'm going to bring it back to the library with the other book on negotiating I read.

I had the day off this morning, so I had a chance to watch The Dark Knight Returns. It took about a month of waiting for me to get it from my library. I really enjoyed the DVD. Keith Ledger did an excellent job as the joker. Christian Bale also did an excellent job as batman. It was probably the best batman I have ever seen so far. I really liked how they presented the story of Harvey Dent as well. It had a nice surprise ending. I also likd that two of the main characters died. This made it a much darker film than most superhero films.

It was also a chance to do my yoga exercises while watching the movie, then eat my lunch. This is one of the reasons I like watching films at home. It gives me a chance to do light exercise, maybe have a snack and relax.

I am walking up to my local library to drop off some books in a few minutes. Here I am, I've dropped off my books, now I am sitting at the computer typing away here. I picked up three books, The Merchant of Dennis The Autobiography of Hank Ketcham, c2005 Fantagraphic Books. This looks very good. It has lots and lots of cartoons and photographs in the book. The next book is Spunk and Bite A Writer's Guide to Punchier More Engaging Language & Style by Arthur Plotnick. He was a publishing executive and wrote The Elements of Editing. The third book is another practical business oriented book, Getting Results For Dummies by Mark H. McCormack. Mark H. McCormack is the founder of the largest international sports marketing organization, International Management Group.

I admit, I have a few too many books to read right now. I have them on my desk at work and at home in piles ready to go. I will eventually catch up with them. You get a brief lull then something happens and you have something interesting to do. I enjoy looking at and examining books.