Writing Tips at GarySpeer.com

I think it’s probably a truism that good writers make good trivia players.

If nothing else, the reading and research most writers do of necessity gives them a wide knowledge of a wide range of subjects.

Of course, generally speaking, generalizations are never a good idea. (That’s sort of a joke.) But in my case, and as with every writer I know, years of writing and reading has made me pretty good at “Jeopardy” and the few trivia games I play. (In fact, I rarely play trivia games. I rarely play any games. Just not a game person.)

As a recent example, I was working on something that led me to the term terry romper, which I immediately suspected had something to do with infants’ toys or infants’ sleepers. I discovered when I researched the term, I discovered it goes beyond infant clothing and is a perfectly acceptable term for adult clothing. Other odd, or even downright “weird” words I ran onto in the same research are:

assumpsit — Sounds almost “dirty” or “naughty,” doesn’t it? It’s actually a legal term related to breach of contract matters.

wenis — Term for the rough patch of skin often found on the outside of the human elbow.

Those are just two of some weird words that might be useful when you do your next trivia game. Let me give credit where it is due: Those two weird words and some others you can have great fun with came from a website I stumbled onto and have bookmarked on my computer. Take a look for yourself at “Naughty-Sounding Word for Odd Occasions” and enjoy.

I’m not exactly sure why my mind turned to this subject, but here we are. As a writer, do you rely on any “artificial stimulants” when you do your work? That is, do you feel the need for anything from a soda to mind-altering drugs when you are writing?

Just coffee works for me, thanks. Okay, an occasional diet soda or some nicely chilled green tea works, too.

It has always amazed me to read of very famous authors, and very successful best-selling authors, who I discover used everything from cocaine to pot to just plain tobacco products to “stimulate” their creative juices, or perhaps just keep them mentally active, to get their writing done.

Inevitably, most of those writers either kill or hurt themselves — or simply burn out and drop by the wayside in their writing careers.

It would seem to me, especially in a day when most folks are aware of the evils of this stuff (the marketplace is flooded with every thing from e-cigarettes to special chewing gum just to help people break their nicotine habits), that serious writers now realize the “folly of the fix,” I guess you could say.

To put this plainly: Alcohol, cigarettes, pot, cocaine, and any other of these drugs and various chemical nasties don’t help your creativity. Some people still THINK they do, but the truth is, such stuff destroys your brain cells, destroys your creativity.

It’s been awhile since I’ve mentioned “jargon,” so I thought it about time to put together a brief reminder: Avoid using jargon in your writing, except when it’s necessary.

“Jargon” may be loosely defined as language that belongs to a particular group, profession, or activity. So using it becomes necessary when you’re communicating with someone who understands the particular jargon you’re using.

For example, think about the commentators at the current Winter Olympics events (I am writing this about half way through the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics) and about the way they describe the various events. Think about some of the Olympians’ equipment and training techniques, as well as technical standards being used to evaluate their performances.

As a non-winter sports guy, I know what a “luge” is only in rudimentary fashion. It’s a one-person sled driven with the rider lying on his/her back and using a good push off combined with good old gravity to whiz 90-plus miles per hour down an icy funnel toward the bottom of a mountain. The whole process involves all sorts of technical skills and equipment that would be totally obscure to me even if explained. (I don’t even know what “luge” means, unless it’s some European language for “insane, outrageously expensive sled of death.”)

If someone were to tell me the exact process of training and competing in the luge, they probably wouldn’t make any more sense to me than “quick trim burn & cleanse” makes to my everyday eating and diet habits.

You get the point, I’m sure. If you want to discuss couples’ ice skating performances at the same Winter Olympics, please don’t rattle off stuff about “triple something something jumps,” or “double compulsory something something lifts.” Just say, “Wow, that was amazing,” or “Oops! I’ll bet that messed up jump and roll across the ice when she landed really hurt their chances.”

Okay, of course I realize broadcasting the Olympics demands a certain amount of descriptive jargon and techno-babble for those who really do understand all that. But in your normal writing, stay away from jargon when you don’t need jargon.

Remember that well-worn cliche — “KISS: Keep It Simple, Stupid” — for most of your writing and you’ll do fine.