Write it. See it. Write it better.

Posted by Suzy Vitello Soulé on February 4th, 2011 at 07:35 AM | 2 comments | | Tweet

When I first started out in this biz some six, seven years ago, I was introduced to an amazing online reference tool by my mentor and colleague, Cynthia Artin.

As a writer, I was used to brick and mortar reference guides.  My Oxford.  My Style Guide.  My Roget’s.  Especially my Roget’s, because tired verbs, overused adjectives and cliched terms just looked like dried fly carcasses on my paper.  Or screen.  But, alas, my stock of reference books didn’t always accompany me to the far reaches of the coffee shops, soccer game parking lots and business meetings where I holed up with my laptop and work.  “You won’t believe how cool this is,” said Cynthia in one of her newsy emails.  “I’m totally addicted!”

This was before Twitter and Facebook, mind you, and she wasn’t talking about match.com. Online distractions were still in relative dark ages.  There was Solitaire, of course.  Possibly online Scrabble.  Craig’s List was still only in San Fran.  “What?” Laura and I wanted to know.  “What do you have for us?”

It was a miracle, actually.  A visual wordsmith that spidered out on our screens connecting words to other words in a fascinating expanding web.  We were hooked immediately, Laura and I.  Visual Thesaurus, I’m happy to report, has evolved since its early days.  When you click on the site, you’ll see that its replete with, what Cynthia likes to call, extry’s. Word of the Day, for instance (today’s is confederacy), and pertinent wordlists (again, today we have football terms and winter weatherisms, among others).  But best of all, is a cool word lover’s blog, where writers talk about writing.  You got to love that!  (Well, if you’re a word nerd like me, anyway.)

So, linger not.  I mean don’t delay.  I mean, postpone at your peril.  I mean…

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