I found a new time suck!
This word-cloud generator called Wordle was mentioned on a blog that was mentioned on a blog that I follow—maybe Janet Reid’s?
And now, say it with me: I’m addicted.
It started out innocently enough—I wanted something to throw in the hopper, and the only passage I had to hand was the first page of Chapter Twelve, wherein a minor-but-climbing character named Cassie* goes to a bar to wait for a man she’s about to con.
I plugged it in, and came up with something that was too cool—and then discovered that I could change the word orientation and the font and the colors, too. . .
It’s so pretty—and if I stare at it long enough, without fiddling with the pretty colors or hitting the Randomize button, I can actually see the essence of that passage and maybe just a little bit of Cassie’s attitude:
So far, I’m restraining myself from tossing in the rest of the manuscript–though I’ll probably do it eventually, just to see how massive my habit words** are.
Isn’t it fascinating? Wouldn’t you like to make one of your own and add it to the comments?
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*Who was supposed to die in Chapter Three, but saved her own life—so far—by being herself as hard as she can.
**You know, the ones we repeat over and over without thinking about it and then have to cull in subsequent drafts: just, always, smiled, might, walked, probably, maybe, shrugged, blinked, etc. My adverb count isn’t so bad, really (stop laughing), but if you could fast-forward through my first drafts, the alternate dialogue tags would have my characters jittering off the page.
Earful of Cider 