Some characters are prone to swearing, but readers don’t need to see another F-Bomb. What is a clever way of describing it without using overly used phrases . . . or just using uncreative profanity in your writing? McCammon does it here by playing scrabble and exploding in vowels and consonants, an ingenious, and classy, choice.
It’s early in the year, but Boys Life will undoubtedly be one of my favorite 2024 reads–I’m surprised I hadn’t come across it before, as it was published in 1991. Robert McCammon weaves mystery, magic, and murder creatively in this 1960s era Americana novel. He also packs his imaginative tale with some fun descriptive language. If you’ve not read any Boys Life, or if you’ve got a teen or young adult who likes a surreal mystery with fun characters, I’d definitely recommend this novel Check it out in GoodReads!
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Dann is an educator, Media & Design Guru, Author, and Public Speaker. He currently serves as Media and Design Specialist at an impressive little Midwestern College where he works directly with faculty to develop effective instructional videos. He has an MFA in Digital Cinema from California's National University, a BSED in English and Theatre Education from the University of South Dakota, and a certificate in Online Education from UW Stout. He was founder and principle owner of Little Prompter, LLC, a teleprompter design and manufacturing company until he sold the company in 2020. Prior to joining Carleton's staff, he taught communication, theatre, and video production for approximately 15 years while working as a professional actor and director--appearing in over forty national and regional commercials and directing and editing dozens of videos and musicals.
Dann’s MFA thesis project involved writing and directing an original, full-length musical, filming the entire development and production process, and editing it into an educational DVD entitled How to Write and Produce Your Own High School Musical. His DVD is currently being distributed by Films Media Group. His debut YA Christian Fiction novel, Suddenly Rural Girl, is published through Kirk House Publishing.
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Is there a way to post the actual verbiage? It would be neat to see a little more pre comment verbiage to see how it fits into the sentence. Just a thought.
Happy Easter
Ahh! Totally could. I grabbed just the line that felt like a creative/different choice. Some novels use explicit language . . . and I prefer the kinds that find creative ways to let folks know it occurred, without putting it in text. Long to short, the character was highly frustrated and using scrabble as the metaphor, an explosion of vowels and consonants, was a fun creative way to see the game topple and the blue streak begin!