An arsenal of tools are available to writers – a dictionary and thesaurus, a word processor and spell checker, writers groups and editors—but it is the words that writers work and craft like a seventeenth-century blacksmith. Writers should think of themselves as wordsmiths, but not as the hack that plays in cliché and stuffy words; not as the writer that uses words bigger them himself. Words are like paint on a canvas that are heard, not just viewed. The paint is not the art of Rembrandt or Picasso, but with out it, there would be no art.

William Zinsser says,

“There is a kind of writing that might be called journalese, and it’s the death of freshness in anybody’s style. It’s the common currency of newspapers and of magazines like People—a mixture of cheap words, made-up words and clichés that have become so pervasive that a writer can hardly help using them. You must fight these phrases or you’ll sound like every hack. You’ll never make your mark as a writer unless you develop a respect for words and curiosity about their shades of meaning that is almost obsessive. The English language is rich in strong and supple words. Take the time to root around and find the ones you want.” (On Writing Well)

These words I’ve been thinking about a lot. “You’ll never make your mark as a writer unless you develop a respect for words….”

I started these posts for a number of reasons and one of those reasons is to develop as a writer. So I’m going to try to regularly post interesting words, or overused words, or clichés, or something about words.

Today’s interesting word is triglycerides. The word is a noun. Triglycerides are another form of fats, which is different from cholesterol in a sense that triglycerides are creating energy, while cholesterol cannot create any energy by itself. Both are produced by liver, and both combined with proteins are making lipoproteins. Triglycerides are making stronger muscles. Triglycerides are important for humans for energy, however, high amount of them in the blood can become a cause of heart disease & potentially heart attack.