Hi All,
Welcome to the Word of the Day page. Heathbird and I take turns suggesting this word, she suggests it one week and I the next. Then we try and use the word in our writing in some way, whether it sparks an idea or is present in the text somewhere. Our hope is that it will spark some of your ideas too. If it does, feel free to leave a comment with one of the Word of the Day posts during the week and let us know :)
Have Fun!
Word of the Day this week....
October 21, 2012 - Sorry for the remiss in keeping this up. I am hoping by changing the posting day to Saturdays/Sundays that perhaps I can keep up on this better as I really do miss posting it. This week Heathbird has suggested the word "perhaps" which invokes all kinds of possibilities. After all, perhaps... is the very basis for something, a happening, a story, is it not?
Previous words...
July 10, 2012 - Today I would like to suggest the word "penny." In Canada, a penny is one cent, however, these 'pennies' are soon to be rare as the government has decided that they will no longer be making the "penny," and so it will shortly be obsolete. The reasoning behind this is that it cost more to manufacture than it is worth.
June 26, 2012 - Heathbird's next suggestion is "chrysalid,“ as an adjective. As for being a chrysalis, being in "the form of an insect while it is changing into an adult and is enclosed in a hard case“ (Oxford dictionary). She also says, the German translation of chrysalis is "Puppe," which also means doll - this gives another set of associations…, "chrysalid" would be translated with "verpuppt“. Have fun!
June 13, 2012 - Today I would like to suggest the word "Belle," which is french for beautiful, but can also be a person's name. Have fun!!
June 05, 2012 - Today Heathbird says, "the word I want to suggest is "Night Swallow“, which is a literal translation of our word for Nightjar: Nachtschwalbe." Have fun!!!
May 28, 2012 - Today I would like to suggest the word "news." I can't help but think of how headlines capture a readers attention like story beginnings should and wonder if a character were to read their own story would it be like imparting news? Or what news a character might get which would change their life or outlook?
May 14, 2012 - This week Heathbird would like to suggest the word "tea house."
April 24, 2012 - This week I would like to suggest the Inuit word "Inukshuk." And Inukshuk is a figure in the shape of a man, formed by large flat stones piled on each other. They provide landmarks on the tundra by which individuals can navigate.
April 20, 2012 - This week I would like to suggest the word "Tiger Lily." Have fun :)
April 10, 2010 - This week Heathbird would like to suggest the word "moving."
March 28, 2012 - This week I would like to suggest the word, "present." I had thought of the word presence as I like the sound, but it doesn't seem to have all the alternate meanings that "present" has.
March 14, 2012 - This week Heathbird would like to suggest the word "illusion."
March 08, 2012 - This week I would like to suggest the word "snowbird." Whether it' the "snowbirds" or birds in the snow in winter, there are many different ways to use this word. I hope you fun flying this word around :)
February 21, 2012 - This week Heathbird was inspired by the novel "Ash" and would like to suggest the word "impossible" for this week.
February 09, 2012 - This week I would like to suggest the word "sidewalk."
January 25, 2012 - This week I would like to suggest the word "whiteout." It seems to be appropriate given the current weather where I am. We had a cold snap last week of below 30*C weather and this week we are warmer, but socked in with snowstorms making the highways bad, depending on the time and day. I have also had to "whiteout" my internet for the past two days and thus was unable to post yesterday. Have fun writing!!
January 17, 2012 - This week Heathbird would like to suggest the word, "Birdfeeder." Have fun!
January 11, 2012 - I feel we are on a run of "P" words this past 3 weeks. This week I would like to suggest the word "picturesque."
January 04, 2012 - Today Heathbird would like to suggest the word "Postage," actually she suggested it a 2 weeks ago and I thought I'd got it posted, but I suppose I didn't check to see it actually updated :( Anyway, Enjoy!!
December 12, 2011 - This week I would like to introduce the word "Portrait." Although the following picture is not of a person, I like to think of it as a portrait of a tree.
November 29, 2011 - This week Heathbird would like to suggest the word "Island." Mmmm.... I can think of so many possibilities. Have fun :)
November 22, 2011 - This week I would like to suggest the word "snowbird," I'm not sure if there are any birds with this name, but it would be interesting to see what they would look like if there were. Below is a picture of Bohemian Waxwings in the tree outside my house, taken in the fall of last year. This year they seem to have returned even though they are apparently uncommon for this area.
November 16, 2011 – my apologies for not managing to keep up with this over the past 3 weeks... can it have been that long? I'm chagrined. Would 2 words in one week will help make up for my lack of posting.
Heathbird suggests the word "eggshell," both for the colour and the object (your pick). And I would like to suggest the word "eagles-eye," which is sometimes used in reference to a person with exceptional eyesight and attention to detail. Have fun!
October 28, 2011 - This week Heathbird would like to suggest the word "cul–de–sac."
October 18, 2011 - This week, in light of the fresh snow here, I would like to suggest the word "Snow-angel."
October 12, 2011 - This week Heathbird suggests the word "flight." Have fun!
October 04, 2011 - Hello, this week I would like to suggest a word which can be an action or a sound, "zip."
September 28, 2011 - This week Heathbird suggests the word "Dunes." She says she loves the sound of it and that the German equivalent, "Dünen," doesn't sound quite as soft.
September 21, 2011 - This week I would like to suggest the word "Coffee Shop." A place most writers are probably familiar with :)
September 08, 2011 - My apologies for not getting this posted earlier, I have had a crazy week. This week Heathbird said, 'I just came across the word "minikin" and found it very funny, beginning with how it sounds. I saw it has a small variety of meanings, so thought I would like to try it out.'
September 01, 2011 - This week I would like to suggest the word, "Spirit." And I'm very interested in the many ways it could appear in your work.
August 23, 2011 - Heathbird would like to try the word "notch" this week.
August 16, 2011 - This week I would like to suggest the word "Fly."
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| A blackbird flies. |
August 10, 2011 - After a week of forgetfulness, Heathbird's inspiration has awakened again: "Hi! (-; One of the literary motifs that always occupied me is that of the shadow. I want to play with it more often in my writing from now on. So, if you use it simply metaphorically, or as an archetype, perhaps in the sense of a mythical novel structure, or rather as an up to now hidden inner part of a main character, or even if the sun just hides behind a skyscraper to throw a road of darkness into your landscape in a crucial moment of your story..., how about exploring some "Shadowgames" with me in this week's writing?"
August 04, 2011 - Today I would like to suggest an ordinary word, "Signpost." I wonder what significance signposts will have in all your stories this week :)
July 26, 2011 - This week I would like to suggest the word "Leaves." As I look out my window this afternoon at the green leaves on the tree I am struck by how the word "leaves" can mean two different things. Someone "leaves" a place and the leaves on a tree. The "leaves" leave the buds on the branches in the spring, emerging into the sunlight and bursting into colour and life. Then they will grow change and die before leaving the branches and littering the grounds below. Have fun with it :)
July 19, 2011 - This week Heathbird suggests the word "Arcane."
July 12, 2011 - I am chagrinned at my forgetfulness in updating this. I can only say my days have been so packed I am not sure whether I am coming and going. Today I would like to suggest an object, "red Kayak." This is partly what has kept me from this page and occupied my mind. I wonder what you will make of your "red Kayak" this week and the adventures that await.
June 23, 2011 - Good morning! This week Heathbird would like to suggest "Soul mate." Have fun :)
June 14, 2011 - Next week will be the beginning of a new year for our Word of the Day page and so I would like to suggest the word, "Cycle." Cycles repeat, they come and go and move round and round. I wonder what the new year of words will bring.
June 08, 2011 - This week Heathbird says, "I somehow see the vision of a swarm of 'fireflies' before my inner eye right now, like the image of some unknown but hopeful aim to go for and find out about."
May 30, 2011 - This week I would like to suggest the word, "Break." Whether you use it as a verb or a noun is your choice.
May 24, 2011 - This week Heathbird wants to share some of her favourite trees. Spring is already becoming summer in Europe and it must be wonderful to fly high and see all the patches of lemon-coloured rape-fields from above. This is where she found the three young trees, growing together as if one single organism. They inspired her to suggest the verb "harmonize".
May 20, 2011 - Good afternoon. This week has slipped by and I realized I have been delinquent in posting this weeks word, but with the long weekend ahead perhaps it's not to late to get some writing done. I would like to suggest the word, "interpretation," for this week as everyone interprets things in very different ways which can sometimes cause conflict in life and plot. (At least in my mind).
May 10, 2010 - For this week Heathbird suggests the word "Ermine," which in German is "Hermelin."
May 04, 2011 - Good morning :) Today I have decided to suggest the work "Spring." Spring the season, the action, the object - whichever you chose. I'm just happy most of the snow is off my lawn.
April 26, 2011 - Today Heathbird was astonished that I still hadn´t posted her new word suggestion. She said it had been so clear on her mind all day that I really should have known it by myself. The word she has been pondering is "Telepathy". Try it if you like! ;-D
April 19, 2011 - For this week I would suggest the word "feeder." With the warm weather the birds have been out at mine. Have fun :)
April 05, 2011 - Heathbird is already very tired tonight (you know, birds fall asleep when the sun sets...), so she wants to suggest the word "Twins" without further circumstances this week. The idea how it must feel to be a twin just never got out of her mind these days.
March 29, 2011 - For this week I have been considering a number of words and it has proven a challenge to pick just the right one. So, I'm going to go out on a limb and pick an interesting word. I am currently involved in a production of the Vagina Monologues written by Eve Ensler. My suggestion for this week is "Vagina." Have fun with it.
March 22, 2011 - This week you can all write totally what you want, Heathbird says with a grin. Because this week she suggests to use the word "gizmo" in our writing. Isn´t it an odd sort of a word?
March 07, 2011 - my regrets for posting this almost a week late :( Last week flew by and I was incredibly busy. However, I will be on track now. The word of the day I was thinking of is, "Character," an important piece of any story in spirit and terminology.
March 01, 2011 - This week Heathbird suggests the word, "Textures," and has provided a picture of winter textures from overseas.
February 22, 2011 - Today I sat pondering what a good word would be and decided that I would use the word "Rendezvous." This is a french word which has to do with a meeting or get together. Here in the Yukon this comming weekend is the Sourdough Rendezvous. This is our annual winter festival, aside from Frostbite Music Festival, which was last weekend. Enjoy !
February 15, 2011 - Sitting behind window panes glazed by ice-rain, today, Heathbird ponders the word "celadon". It´s the name of a traditional Chinese crackled pottery glaze the colour of jade. It sometimes turns out as a pale grey-green, and sometimes nearly turquoise like a lagoon. It´s the name of the colour as well as of the stoneware or porcelain. Heathbird´s own set of small celadon antipasti dishes are as yellowish green as mistletoe and inspiringly crackled. There is also a shade of artists´ ink called Celadon. And then, she just likes the flow and looks of the word itself. Endless possibilities...
February 08, 2011 - Today I am going to borrow an idea from Heathbird, if she doesn't mind, and make a phrase suggestion. My suggestion is, "tangled love connections." I thought being close to Valentines Day and all that perhaps this could lend itself to many different images. Have fun with it.
February 3, 2011 - What Heathbird muses: from Lucy M. Boston´s Green Knowe series of childrens´ books I once was informed that there exists a set of traditional languages used by witches, including an alphabet of their own. And that these languages were altogether given the name "Crossing the River", which I still find an extraordinarily inspiring term, as well as a promising motif. This week I would like to suggest it for our Word of the Day and hope you will take it from me, counting as one word...
January 25, 2011 - For this week I was thinking "Book," might be interesting to use. One can book and appointment or read a book or do any number of things with the word as a noun or a verb. Have fun :)
January 18, 2011 - For this week Heathbird suggests we use "Sundogs," in some way.
January 10, 2011 - I have always loved the pseudoarchaic variant of fairy, spelt "faery" or faerie. My dictionary describes it as a noun: a fairy or fairyland – the world of faerie. And as an adjective: imaginary or mythical. I know that most people spell faery as fairy and the word fairy is common in stories and in describing the genre of fairy–tale, but I have always loved the imagery and emotional significance the in my view ancient spelling brings to my mind – it's akin to that smell of historical age and mystery one gets from old buildings. Have fun and feel free to use whatever spelling takes your fancy :)
January 4, 2011 – The first word of the year comes from Heathbird. She muses:
Such a tiny, hardly audible thing of a word. It sounds so weightless, light, and snappy. Secretive. But to think what enormous effect a single of its kind can have on the plot of a novel! Did you ever try to give a story several different endings? This week´s word seems like an invitation to do this, at least to me. The word is "Fib".
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December 27, 2010 - It's hard to believe that this weeks word will be the last word of the day in 2010. So, for this week I propose the word "resolution." Have fun. See you in the New Year.
December 21, 2010 – Today Heathbird said: you can think about Jerome David Salinger´s story "The Inverted Forest" a lot of different things but what is still haunting me since I´ve first read it, is its central image of the "great inverted forest with all foliage underground". It´s placed in a poem there but I would like to make it this week´s word of the day: "Inverted Forests".
December 14, 2010 - This week Heathbird has suggested the word "shades of grey." In german it is Grautöne which means also "sounds or notes of grey" and although grey usually sounds like a rather dull experience she has always found the more one looks at it the more it surprises and suggests that perhaps it is this play with synaesthetic connotations which makes these words so inspiring to her.
December 07, 2010 - This weeks word is "crunch," the sound the snow makes on a cold winters day when one is walking in it.
November 30, 2010 - For this week I have been inspired to suggest the word "Glass Tiger." Aside from the it being, technically, a phrase and the name of a Canadian band, I feel inspired by the image it conjures up in my mind.
November 23, 2010 - This week Heathbird brings us the word "Rime," meaning rimfrost. She says, Don´t they look like a couple in love skating on ice? Or as if they´d just sailed down from their summer twig like this, where they grew side by side?
November 16, 2010 - This week's word is "journey."
November 11, 2010 - This week Heathbird has suggested the work "Map." My apologies for not posting it sooner. All I can say is that technology is great when it works and up north the internet service occasionally crashes.
November 2, 2010 - This week's word is "brothers." I chose it because the story project I'm working on this month has three boys in it who are brothers and I'm curious to find out how that will change or influence the story - so those are there my thoughts are at the moment.
October 26, 2010 - Heathbird says: in German you can make really long words without any breaks. So what you see on this photograph could be named "Korbweidenallee", which literally means basket willow avenue and wouldn´t yet be called an especially long word. If I always suggested our Words of the Day in German, I could already put half a story into them, so to say, with just a bit of exaggeration... As it is really autumn by now, here too, I find it wonderfully inspiring to look at those trees again, at those earthy and yet brilliant colours, and to think the word(s) "osier alley", the translation with the sound I like best.
October 26, 2010 - Heathbird says: in German you can make really long words without any breaks. So what you see on this photograph could be named "Korbweidenallee", which literally means basket willow avenue and wouldn´t yet be called an especially long word. If I always suggested our Words of the Day in German, I could already put half a story into them, so to say, with just a bit of exaggeration... As it is really autumn by now, here too, I find it wonderfully inspiring to look at those trees again, at those earthy and yet brilliant colours, and to think the word(s) "osier alley", the translation with the sound I like best.
October 19, 2010 - Sorry for the delay last week. I was without internet access while attending Piper's Frith in Newfoundland. It was inspirational and as I pondered for a word today I was struck by many different ideas and have finally decided on a word which can be both object and action "fly." Have fun!
October 05, 2010 - As an admirer of Friedrich Dürrenmatt´s work Heathbird always felt inspired by the titles of his "Stoffe"-cycle: the first part is called "Labyrinth". Therefore she wants to try the word "labyrinthine" this week.
September 28, 2010 - The work this week is "painter."
September 21, 2010 - Heathbrid has suggested the word "Masks" for this week as there are so many connotations it can have.
September 14, 2010 - This weeks word is "éclair." I used to love having these as a treat when I was younger.
September 07, 2010 - "As Heathbird is rather curious by nature and always loves the threshold-moments in stories most, both in reading and in writing, she suggests to try the word "Threshold" itself this week. Uh, and good luck on the other side...!"
August 31, 2010 - It's the end of August already and I have had a busy week wishing I'd had time to finish my post on what's now last weeks word. So with that in mind my word suggestion for this week is "whimsical."
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| This "bridge" lies at Banff Centre for The Arts in Banff, Alberta. A frame of wire mesh holds the rounded stones in place. It always reminds me of hidden places and mythical lands. |
August 24, 2010 - After several weeks dedicated to nouns, Heathbird this time suggests the word "stranded".
August 17, 2010 - This week my word suggestion is "Miners Range," it is the name of a chain of mountains, but could be so much more...
August 10, 2010 - Heathbird suggested to explore something concerning "home" this week.
August 03, 2010 - For this week's word Léonie has picked, "Raven," A bird prevalent around where she lives. Yesterday morning, when she was out walking she came across one on a tree, making a myriad of talking noises.
July 27, 2010 - Heathbird´s new word wish is "blue". Blue like the summer sky. Blue like cornflowers in a wheat field. Blue like the flower of the Romanticists´ longing...
She took this picture near a small village in her neighbourhood.
July 20, 2010 - Having just got back from Dawson at 11 p.m. last night I haven't had time to write my post about last weeks word. However, as it's now Tuesday it's time for a new word, "coffee," and I'm sure I will be able to incorporate last week's "views" and this weeks "coffee" into my post later in the week. Have fun!
July 12, 2010 - The word Heathbird suggested this week is "views." She took the picture below. It was taken this spring in May at Luebeln Mill in northern Germany (Lower-Saxony) during an arts and crafts festival which takes place in the countryside every year from Ascention Day to Pentacost. It shows the upper part of a piece of art standing alone in the middle of a beautiful meadow near the former mill.
July 06, 2010 - This week I decided on the adjective "random." Enjoy!
June 29, 2010 - Our word this week is a verb, "floating." I can't wait to see what I write as many ideas are coming to mind.
June 22, 2010 - After much thought this word keeps coming to me, "Fireweed." I looked it up in the dictionary on my computer and this is what it said. Fireweed: noun 1. a plant that springs up on burned land, esp. the pink flowered Epilobium angustifolium, a wide spread herb. 2. another term for PILEWORT (sense 1).
June 15, 2010 - My penpal and I were discussing having a "Word of the Day" and then perhaps using it in our writing. Our word this week is "Glass Marble."
