by Jamie Chavez | Jun 25, 2018 | Creativity
Have you ever remembered someone you once knew and wondered where that person was? You might have loved or hated this person, might just be a childhood friend … and you just wonder. The Internet exists, so you do a search, see what comes up. Modify the search, try...
by Jamie Chavez | Jun 12, 2017 | Words & Language
I love slang as much as the next person. As a frame of reference, slang instantly conveys humor, sarcasm, or solidarity. Just think about the meaning occupy has taken on recently, and the myriad ways it’s been applied. Pop culture (that is, the world we live in) is a...
by Jamie Chavez | May 23, 2017 | Words & Language
There are words and then there are … favorite words. Like, you know, cream-colored ponies and crisp apple strudels, these are a few of my favorite— You have favorite words, don’t you? I do. Again, I don’t mean favorite phrases, like Awesome, dude. (Although I do love...
by Jamie Chavez | Nov 14, 2016 | Words & Language, Your Editor Says …
You know I love my thesaurus, right? I do. I have at least four of them, from various decades dating back to the ’40s (you’d be surprised how useful that is), as well as a rhyming dictionary, a slang dictionary, and something called the Flip Dictionary, which is more...
by Jamie Chavez | Nov 5, 2016 | Creativity, The Writing Craft
I haven’t seen Hamilton, but I know a lot of you are fans—and in this article about the making-of documentary Hamilton’s America, author Charles Wendig offers up storytelling lessons, noting, “there’s nothing more fascinating than watching an interesting creator in...