Hyacinth Grey. Indie Author. I write fiction.

Tag: writingprompts

  • Tomb

    I was working on a book and wrote the word “tombstone.” Then I started to wonder why “tomb” rhymes with “gloom” and doesn’t sound like “Tom.” According to Wiktionary, “tomb” was borrowed from Old French into Middle English, and since I understand neither Middle English spelling nor pronunciation, I don’t know why the o, but…

  • The Penny, the Dollar, and the Pound

    I’m having some book covers created by David Collins of DC Cover Creations, and I pay in British pounds. I started thinking about the names of various currencies, and what they mean. The penny. Well, pennies are old, and I don’t mean just sort of old. The word has a Proto-Germanic origin and there are…

  • House – Haiku

    The writing prompt for this haiku was the first word that popped into my head: “house.” The outside’s not much, Walls and windows roof and doors, The inside is home.

  • Lousy

    It’s interesting how the meaning of words changes over time, but even more so that we don’t often think about the words we use, and where they come from. A remarkably good (or bad) example of this is the word “lousy.” The dictionary definition, or at least the first one, is “remarkably bad,” “poor quality,”…

  • Find

    I post a haiku on Mondays, but I can never have too many and I like starting them with writing prompts. Prompt (first word that popped into my head): find A computer screen, The mind wishing to know things, Hands on the keyboard.

  • Sober

    It’s almost Friday, so I’m thinking about the opposite of sober. I had no idea where the word “sober” came from, so I looked it up; it’s pretty much Latin for not drunk (“without intoxication.”) Well great! I like to learn something I didn’t already know when I research words for these posts. Maybe I…

  • New Words

    Lately, I’ve been seeing the word “clickbait.” Is it something I was supposed to bite down on? Since I do a writing prompt on Thursday, “clickbait” will be the word I use. I usually like new words, but sometimes it takes me a while to get used to them. Other times, I never do. For…

  • Focus

    I like using a prompt on Thursdays, so I headed over to Discovery and found Focus. One suggestion was to talk about a sound, smell, or other stimulus that makes it easier to focus. For me, the stimulus has to be internal. I have to feel that interest, that drive, that get-up-and-go to be able…