I decided not to try and trick you on April Fool’s Day with something like “Steve Laube buys yet another shiny industry business. This time he bought the entire out-of-print catalogs from Nomas Telson, Zyndale, and Tondervan. Included in the purchase was the New International Christian Standard Living Message Bible (NICSLMB).”
Instead, I thought about which reference book I use more than any other.
The book?
The Synonym Finder by J.I. Rodale.
I prefer it over Roget’s Thesaurus because it is laid out logically–like a dictionary.
It is my go-to resource when brainstorming book titles (which happens quite frequently).
There are multiple occasions where I need an alternative word to the one I’m trying to use. So I look it up and dozens of synonyms are listed for that word. Over one million of them in the whole book (1,361 pages). For example:
Hysteria. 1. outburst, eruption, explosion, flare-up; fit, seizure, convulsion, spasm, paroxysm.
2. delirium, frenzy, madness, craze, furor, fury, Slang screaming-meemies.
Perfect for when the publisher moved your book’s publication date by three months and forgets to tell you. And you planned your entire travel and speaking schedule around the original release date. You are seized in a paroxysm of fury.
Perfect for when the publisher sends you a horrible design for your book cover that has you erupting in an explosion of madness and screaming-meemies.
If you add this to your library, one suggestion is to buy the hardback. My copy has lasted over 30 years and should last another 30, barring some disaster.
Your turn:
What reference book do you use most frequently? Or, if you must, other than Google, what is your go-to reference site?
Gray Saturday
I once had a thesaurus
and kept her in the yard.
A neighbour said, ‘The rest of us
take it kinda hard
when that beast is peering
o’er our back fence,
and our cats keep disappearing…
please, sir, don’t take offense,
but could you do something
to assuage our fears?
These houses as investments bring
security for Golden Years,
but buyers, they might stay away
if Thessie sees them as buffet ‘
Love it! 😀
Thanks, Pam!
He is RISEN!
I write mostly fantasy, so I’m always on the look out for interesting (and pronounceable) names. My favorite website is the Name Generator. I went to look it up to share with you, but the one I like to use isn’t there anymore. Still, if you Google “fantasy name generator” several pop up.
Sometimes, I use the names it suggests, and sometimes I tweak the spelling.
It’s a lot of fun … and a HUGE time waster. haha! Kinda like research. 😉
I find myself gravitating to wordhippo.com for synonyms, but I will purchase a copy of The Synonym Finder, in hardback, today. 🙂 Thank you for the recommendation!
Yes, wordhippo.com is my go-to synonym fonder app. I keep it open while I write my Christian fiction manuscripts. It stays up to date, I believe.
powerthesaurus.org has become my favorite. I write with it open in a secondary screen. Makes downtime looking for the word I couldn’t think of go faster.
My favorite go-to reference book is “The Magical Christian Writers Market Guide”, which is much better than the ordinary “Christian Writer’s Market Guide”.
This book is put out by the Leave Sobbing Literary Agency, and it has some amazing features. It’s very short – it only has the names of two agents, three publishers and half a dozen magazines and other venues for publishing articles. But here’s the thing. If you write to any of the agents, publishers or magazines listed, your proposal or query is guaranteed to be accepted. Isn’t that wonderful? This means that each copy of the book is tailor made for each buyer. It is of course fairly expensive, (like several orders of magnitude more than its closest rival mentioned above), but it’s worth it. And it works, as I can testify. Try it, you will love it.
And as you might expect, I disagree with Steve about eschewing (forgoing? Avoiding? Ignoring?) today’s holiday.
Sy,
Hilarious!
I shall heretofore steal the appellation “The Leave Sobbing Agency” as our alternate spelling.
Another title for the book might be “The Christian Writers Market Guide – Abridged Edition ”
Perfect. It can be yours for a one-time fee of $50!
Thanks, Steve. Sign me up for it!
The Million Word Crossword Dictionary is also a GREAT source for synonyms.
Thanks for this recommendation, Steve. I just ordered a copy from Amazon. One web site I use is RhymeZone.com. It has synonyms, antonyms, and other helps.
I enjoy your blog, especially Fun Fridays!
Blessings
I love Rhymezone.com. I discovered it when writing a Prophecy for my fantasy book. Great recommendation.
Steve! I was so delighted to see the photo of Rodale’s Synonym finder right there in your post this morning! My sister bought a copy for me many years ago (1978 edition) and, since then, it has been my faithful go-to for just the right word(s). Love it. Thank you for a very enjoyable post on this April Birdbrain’s, Blockhead’s, Ninny’s, Nitwit’s, Day.
Debra I think you characterized my personal favorite day of the year perfectly.
Have had mine for over 30 years and it’s still my go-to.
Your wonderful out of print catalogue companies may cause some hysteria!
My go to book for quotes and themes is the Bible. My go to website are wordhippo.com (awesome when I can only say awesome once in a manuscript) and BlueLetterBible.org to learn what Hebrew or Aramaic or Greek word was used in scripture and to help design my fantasy languages and names.
I have several go to books, but the one I use the most is the Synonym finder. i love looking up words finding different meanings for the ones we so commonly use as writers. It add fresh and creative flow to your writing.
One of my favorite online reference sites is openbible.info/topics type in any word or topic you can think of and it will pull up a plethora of scriptures that either have the word in them or deal with the same topic. It’s an amazing tool.
My go-to site is Internet Archive! The good folks at http://archive.org/ provide free online access to books and documents for my research that I would otherwise not be able to locate. Writing historical fiction, some of the books I need were published in the later 1800s – with few copies remaining. The search functions also make it possible to find details in the archive copy in seconds – even when I already own a copy of the book.