Weird words and a little gift for you
Do you get anxious reading out loud in a group? I know writers are supposed to be experts on words, but sometimes I think we’re the worst. We’ve learned a lot from reading fiction, which is kind of like someone saying they’re an expert on WWII because they read a dozen Wikipedia articles on it. The best example of my lack of word knowledge is in pronunciation. There are a lot of words I would be mortified to read out loud because even if I know what they mean, I’m ninety percent sure I’ve been saying them wrong inside my head all my life. Words like indignantly and mischievous. But they aren’t all big words. Recently my daughters have become obsessed with Billie’s Yummy Bakery Adventure. In this book, they use the word waft, TWICE. 
Do you say it with an “ah” so it rhymes with soft? Or do you make it rhyme with raft? I said it one way all my life, then discovered I was wrong, so now when I read it to my girls I overemphasize the word because this “correct” way sounds wrong to me. But guess what? Since it bothered me so much, I looked it up again, and I learned that BOTH ways are correct. And now I’m irritated that somewhere, somewhen, someone made me feel wrong for saying it the way I did. Where am I going with this? Your guess is as good as mine. There’s probably a moral in here somewhere. Don’t worry about what other people think about you, trust your instincts, purposely say words wrong to irritate people. It’s probably that last one. What words have you pronounced wrong all your life? Or which ones are you afraid to read out loud? 
Do you say it with an “ah” so it rhymes with soft? Or do you make it rhyme with raft? I said it one way all my life, then discovered I was wrong, so now when I read it to my girls I overemphasize the word because this “correct” way sounds wrong to me. But guess what? Since it bothered me so much, I looked it up again, and I learned that BOTH ways are correct. And now I’m irritated that somewhere, somewhen, someone made me feel wrong for saying it the way I did. Where am I going with this? Your guess is as good as mine. There’s probably a moral in here somewhere. Don’t worry about what other people think about you, trust your instincts, purposely say words wrong to irritate people. It’s probably that last one. What words have you pronounced wrong all your life? Or which ones are you afraid to read out loud? This last month I put together a fun little freebie on my website. Some of you were faster than me and you already signed up and got the link. I’m impressed (and welcome again!). For those of you who were already loyal subscribers, I wanted to make sure you got the freebie too! And from now on, I promise all freebies will go to you first. Because if you put up with these emails, you’ve earned it.
I’d love to hear which of this tips you already incorporate in your reading life and which you plan to try!
Until next time,
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