An “I Love Words” Post + #ROW80 Update

Yesterday, our ROW80 fearless leader, Kait Nolan, posted about words writers should be embarrassed to mistake. 

I laughed all day long about Voila vs. Walla. I’ve seen “walla” a few times and never had a clue what it meant. Go to Kait’s post if you want a good chuckle.

Julie Glover also has fantastic posts on words and language in her Amazing Words Wednesday series – I definitely recommend you check these out.

Like any other writer, I LOVE words – reading about them, writing them, pondering them, discussing them. I’d pretty much bathe in words all day long if I could get away with it.

My readers here at More Cowbell know, I’ve got an enquiring mind. Since I’ve been asked to correct “enquiring” with “inquiring” on more than one occasion, I figured I’d take a moment to analyze the difference.

(FYI, I avoid “inquiring” as often as possible – it’s waaaay more work than “enquiring.”)

One of my favorite sites, www.DifferenceBetween.net gave this summary:

1. Enquiry means asking a question, and inquiry is a formal investigation.
2. The prefix ‘en’ comes from French, and ‘in’ from Latin.
3. Enquiry is a request for truth, knowledge or information, whereas an inquiry is an investigation into something.
4. Enquiry is preferred in British English, whereas the Americans are more comfortable with inquiry.
5. In spite of there being a clear distinction in the meanings of the two terms, people often use them interchangeably.

The entire article can be found here.

On to my ROW80 progress…Here’s my Goals for Round 3:

Complete Candace Havens’ July 7th Fast Draft course.

I’m still hanging on by my fingernails in Candy’s class and am delighted that we’re going into the revision stage, which is why I really needed the class. I’m gathering all of my pregnancy memoir scribblings into one place and I need to refine it into a cohesive book so my Writers In The Storm critiquers can have at it.

Finish the first draft of my pregnancy memoir and submit it to my critique group. (As you can see, this is dependent on goal #1)

A minimum of 1K/day on my fiction OR non-fiction WIPs the entire round.

I’ve actually done this one, all but a few days. The writing is going well now that it’s a habit and I’m allowing myself to write on either book, rather than forcing myself to stick with the non-fiction when it’s feeling like I’m running through mud.

Learn how to make gluten-free bread.

I plan to try this one after the RWA conference. (Click here for RWA Conference details!) I’ve got some house guests I’ll be shuttling to and from the conference and I’m gonna be busy.

Read 1 craft book this round.

I’ve got James Scott Bell, Les Edgerton, Chris Vogler and Blake Snyder sitting at the top of this pile. Those are all some hot Craft guys!! I’m leaning toward Chris or Blake with “The Writer’s Journey” or “Save the Cat.” Any recommendations about who goes first??

Encourage at least 2 new ROW80 writers each Sunday.

This is a snap! These are always amazing, brave, fun writers and I love getting to meet new ones each week. If you want to encourage your fellow ROW80 teammates, or add yourself to the linky tool, go here.

So how is the writing week going for you? What was your biggest success or challenge? What’s your opinion on the craft book? Are you more of an “inquirer” or an “enquirer?” We’d love to hear about it!

Jenny