Tags
editing advice, editing tips, Self-editing, Strong Verbs, Strong vs Weak Words, Strong Words, Weak Verbs, Weak Words, writers, writing
Okay fellow word wranglers. I have another Strong vs Weak Word for you. Don’t turn away. Please turn to me for help, turn to me for love, and turn to me for affirmation.
Is your head spinning from turning so much?
You guessed it . . . today’s word is “turn.”
“Turn” is a nice enough word. You can have a turn of phrase, turn on your heel or, as I do, turn men’s heads. But “turn” is one of those words that “turns” up everywhere if you aren’t careful.
As per usual . . . here we go.
Robin turned to me and said, “Thank you for following my blog.”
Are you an idiot? Robin is a nimrod.
Robin grabbed my chin with her boney fingers and twisted my face so she could give me the evil eye. She said, “Follow my blog, or else.”
~~~~~
Turning her head over her shoulder, Robin said, “I love that you love me.”
You love her? Here is the name of my therapist.
Onion-breath washed over me when Robin said, “How dare you un-follow me.”
~~~~~
My love of Robin’s blog turned into an obsession and I thought about her while I was in bed.
Please. Too much information.
My love of Robin’s blog morphed into fearing for my life.
~~~~~
I turn to Robin for advice on all things writing.
That is why agents aren’t returning your calls
Robin is my guru when it comes to how not to write.
Sure, Mr. Roget and his pet dinosaur, Thesaurus, have words we could use instead of “turn.”
Twist
Spin
Rotate
Twirl
Etc.
But why say “she turned her head over her shoulder” when she could bathe someone in onion-breath?
Excuse me . . . I need to brush my teeth.
Robin Coyle 
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Is a turn of phrase allowed?
The judges will allow it.
And what do you think I turned to find? Turned, That’s what. Ahhh
Hahahaha. Good one.
I’m hoping it’s okay to turn to the next post on your blog………lol
Yes, you may turn to any post you like on my blog!
Hm. So what if I said this post is a turn on. Robin? I cannot lie. Ha ha.
Saying this post is a turn on is perfectly acceptable in my book!
You’re TURNING these into a book, aren’t you? Because you need to this. Turn them into a book, or compile them into a compendium of grammarly goodness, or something like that.
I am going to ‘turn’ these silly posts into a book. I can’t believe there are 40+ of them. And, I have ideas for others. Thanks for the encouragement. I really must get on with it! Want to be my editor?
Seriously? I’d love it!
I’m dead serious. I’ll email you tomorrow. Heading out for green beer right now! Happy early St. Pat’s!
What a turn-up for the books – one of your best and funniest yet!
(I hope you understood that – I had my hand covering my face)
Turn-up . . . good one. I’m a bit of a turnip. Hence, turnip breath.
On Thu, Mar 14, 2013 at 12:39 PM, Robin Coy
Ooh, I bet I use turn if I searched! My other half, Neil (I never know what to call him – ‘boyfriend’ sounds like we’re teenagers, ‘partner’ is one I use sometimes, but it sounds a bit odd, so I go for ‘other half’ but I’m not really happy with that either. Anyway, I digress…) Neil is my number one critiquer of my writing, he’s very good and I always get him to read my stuff first and he made a general comment about my writing a while ago that I often seem to go from A to B by the shortest route without thinking about whether sometimes the scenic route might be better! I know what he means, I go for the obvious first choice with wording, which means I often fall into a lot of these type of weak areas that you point out!
How about calling Neil your Main Squeeze? Honey Bunny? Bedfellow? You are welcome.
I wonder what Neil would make of these posts of mine. He would probably say, That Robin takes the scenic route and gets herself lost.”
“For everything,
Turn, turn,turn,..”
Sorry, you inspired that random thought.
Great work as always, Robin.
Thanks, Hook! I’m a fan of the Byrds!
That’s the first thought that turned over in my mind.
I’m a bit dizzy. 😉
So sorry. I’m a bit ditzy.
I love these posts, Robin. Agreed…turn is overused. My twisted mind also went to an image of Linda Blair when I read: “she turned her head over her shoulder” Also the Byrds’ song (To everything…you know the rest). Oh well, just trying to be clever. Really good advice, Robin.
Oh gosh, yes. “The Exorcise” That movie freaked me out. On the other hand, I do love the Byrds. Especially with a name like mine!
I’ve never thought of this before, Robin, but ‘turn’ does sound like a weak word! Yikes – I’ll be heading over to my WIPs now to do a ‘turn’ search 😯
Let me know what you find . . . I am curious. Maybe it is only my writer tic.
It reminded me of the song Turn, Turn Turn by the Byrds (oops, showing my ancient-ness! is that a word?) 😀
If it isn’t a word, it should be!
This is one I notice creeping into my WIP along with Look and Walk. Simple words that we do a lot of but we need to SEEK and DESTROY 🙂
I know I did a post on “look” and thought for sure I did one on “walk” but can’t find it. Maybe is wove it in a post and didn’t dedicate the whole thing to the word. Hmmm . . .
Happy seeking and destroying. How is it going with Rebecca?
Thanks. I think I remember the look one.
Rebecca? How did you know my weekend name 😉
Aren’t you working with Rebecca Dickson? Oh, wait . . . this is Tim Ditmer. So sorry, Rebecca.
😀
My creative brain is struggling to come up with a fun response…. Nope. Nothing. 😦 But I will add this to the “find” list and look for a better word!
All of your comments are creative. Including this one.
Oh, boy, I never thought of that one. The word is probably peppered all over my book. It’s best I don’t ‘turn’ to it and look…
I’m ‘turning’ into a regular nag, aren’t I?
Oh, you turned into that long ago… (As my kids would say, “You know I’m just JK’ing you 🙂 )
Better to be a regular nag an an irregular nag.
Hmm, I’ll see if my kids agree with that. I suspect they’ll put me in the ‘regular’ category.
This post turned my stomach.
You can ‘turn’ your back on me any time.
Never!
Interesting. I didn’t know ‘turn’ is a weak word. *adding to my list*
I didn’t know ‘turn’ was ubiquitous. At least for me at any rate.
Therapy won’t cure it! Your words have affected me in a “revolution”ary way. 😉
That’s the spirit! Together we will ‘revolution’ize the craft of writing.
Yea, verily yea!
As a non-native English speaker, I can tell you turn is one of those tough words to figure. Actually, it’s more about the prepositions that can come after it, they can be quite confusing… To be honest, go is the worst, especially go off, which really means go on. You know, as in “the alarm went off”. Why does it make noise if it’s off???
Interesting. I never thought about “the alarm went off.” That doesn’t make sense, does it. You should do a post about it and we Americans wacky uses for the word “go.”
There are so many of those words that don’t make sense. Parking in a driveway… A friend on Facebook a while ago shared a list of English idioms that don’t make sense for non-native speakers. I wonder if I could find it again. It was pretty funny.
I’d love to see the list. It would make a great blog post!
Here are a few to start with. Completely illogical to me!
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/18314666/Lets-face-it—English-is-a-crazy-language
That was great! Are you going to blog about it?
Not sure? Are you asking me because you want to? You’re welcome to.
No . . . you go for it. I’d like to read your nonnative speaker take on it.
Alright, I’ll have to see if I can find more. I’ve actually always wanted to compare some French and English idioms, because the differences are pretty funny. E.g. it’s raining cats and dogs in English (what the heck???) and in French we say it’s raining ropes. So that gives me a few ideas of some upcoming posts. Now I just have to find the time to write them, ha!
Raining ropes? I look forward to an explanation of that!
Come on! The rain is falling so hard it looks like ropes of water, not just drops. You can’t see it? Then explain raining cats and dogs! 😉
you are mighty entertaining when you teach
(see I did not turn to your for enlightenment – though I know I could have)
Well thank you Lou Ann. I do try to amuse with these posts. Otherwise none of you would come over for a visit and I’d be so lonely.
well, we do not want you to be lonely — am going to pour a glass of wine for myself in about 39 minutes — want to join me?
Of course! I love to start drinking mid-afternoon! (Kidding.)
that will be 5 o’clock young lady
Yep, “turned” is on my search list of words to search for. And, since you read my blog, you know what I think of onions. Never touch the stuff. I have mints on hand for garlic breath though.
I still don’t know how anyone can cook and not use onions. What’s not to like? Tears, bad breath, those annoying onion skins . . .
It smells like B.O. and makes you cry. Yum.
Well, there is that.
I just love idioms. I keep visualizing “turning your head over your shoulders”, literally and get an odd picture of a floating head going round and round above one’s shoulder, not unlike the good angel or bad devil…whichever one speaks to you most often. 😉
If I think about “turning your head over your shoulders” in a literal sense I see a head turning like a screw cap on a bottle neck.
And now I’m stuck with the lyric, “Turn, turn, turn,” by The Byrds! (Adding another word to the find/replace collection for editing).
Oh, great. Now “Turn, Turn, Turn” is stuck in my head too. Thank you very much.
Anytime! (smile)
Scarily, my first thoughts were of The Seekers… To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn) There is a season (Turn, Turn, Turn) And a time to every purpose, under Heaven… Why do so many of your posts give me earworms?
So sorry, Ella Dee. I’ll see what I can do about that. Oh, by the way, have you heard the song “Call Me Maybe.” Don’t let it get stuck in your head! What’s that? Too late you say? Did I plant it in your brain just now?
🙂 Maybe… I write nothing without thinking of you and the list of weak words, even though my conversational “style” transgresses from time to time, When those earworms start singing, I know to beware 😉
What a delightful thing to say. You think of me? Am I like an annoying earworm?
You are like… to quote ChgoJohn’s response to a comment I made, re his Mom’s presence looking over his shoulder while he cooks, “”Oh! So that’s how you do it” Of course, I correct course and go back to the way it should be done.” :)http://fromthebartolinikitchens.com/2013/03/13/another-of-the-bartolini-crown-jewels-cannelloni/#comment-12606
Rats. The link doesn’t work.
It was a comments link, so that might be why… link to the whole post is http://fromthebartolinikitchens.com/2013/03/13/another-of-the-bartolini-crown-jewels-cannelloni/ 🙂
Rotating a new leaf because of you
I always thought the phrase “turning over a new leaf” has it all wrong. You turn over the old leaf (habit) to start a NEW leaf (habit). Perhaps I am over thinking it.
You are a very funny word genius!
You flatter me and I love it!
I pulled up my last book and searched the word “turn.” Only seventeen uses. Phew! Then I searched the word “turned.” Crap! 67 uses. Some of the uses were when someone turned to another person, but others were “tossed and turned,” “turned off the light,” turned something over, etc. Not horrible, but this is definitely going on my list for the next book. You’re the best, Robin! 🙂
Don’t tell anyone but I have 77 various forms of ‘turn’ in my WIP. 77!
Sure, not all will go. How would you say “she turned left at the corner” differently? But it is fun to be creative in turning “turn” into something more interesting.
You are the best too, Maddie!
“Turn men’s heads” I’m sure you do… but I’m turning off now till your next post.. so turn in and I’ll tune out till you tune in again..
Oh fine. Be that way. You tune in, turn on, and drop out.
It’s the tuning in and turning on that I enjoy…
I must say, “turning her head over her shoulder” sounds like it could be very painful if you look too much into it! Personally I abuse “turned on his/her heels” a little too much… definitely need to think of alternatives.
Your characters must often leave the room abruptly!
LOL! and on that note, I’m going to ‘turn’ in. Sweet dreams.
Hope you didn’t toss and ‘turn’ in bed because of this post!
HA! I love how you make grammar sooo FUN . . . you’d be a hit with my students:-)
I know. She’s just so witty!! 🙂
Aw, shucks, ladies. Thanks so much!
Great advice! ….hands her bottle of Listerine….
I fear my breath is too far gone for Listerine. It may need chlorine.
Ack! Listerine is nasty. Scope!
How about a cocktail of Listerine and Scope?