Wicked....

I've been trying to think of different things to put on my blog, to keep it fresh and updated and yet still be entertaining/amusing/informative. Gee, that's a pretty tall order!

One of the things I've come up with is Thesaurus Thursday.

There's a group of writers that I meet with online and we spend evenings and weekends writing and chatting. We've joked about having a "word for the day," and everyone agreed it sounded like fun. But we always forget.

Words are the tools of our trade, and to have a large vocabulary is helpful. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that I think you should use words that no one understands, just to be impressive. In fact, if you use too many words the reader doesn't understand you risk pulling them out of the story and frustrating them. But the more varied the language, the better.

So, I thought it might be fun to do that on Thursdays. And today's word is "Wicked."

I realized over the weekend that I was using that word a lot. "The hero flashed a wicked smile." "The wicked intent was evident in his expression." I pulled out my Synonym Finder and holy cow! "Wicked" takes up 1/2 a column. But, for my purposes, here's the list of options:

immoral, dissolute, dissipated, abandoned, profligate, reprobate, debauched, lewd, lecherous, lascivious, lustful, libidinous, licentious, salacious, prurient, carnal, wanton, unchaste, concupiscent, promiscuous, obscene, indecent, impish, mischievous, elfish, prankish, naughty

slang - masterly, expert, skillful, proficient, deft, adept

The cool thing about using various words, is that sometimes the whole sentence (and maybe even the paragraph) gets reworked. Changing one word will make you look at the sentence completely different. And it usually ends up being a much stronger and expressive sentence.

For example, instead of "The wicked intent was evident in his expression." I could say, "His hooded eyes and heated gaze said the debauchery was about to begin."

Seeing "debauched" on the list changed my thought process and the direction of the sentence.

Now it's your turn. How would you change that sentence to make it stronger and more original?

Hope it's a great day for everyone!
Peace and Love,
Alannah