I am addicted to Roget's Thesaurus, and to making lists. Sometimes, when I need help with writing a tricky scene, I brainstorm a set of words to use in the description. I have made each list into a PDF document, and writers and teachers may find them useful. I have left blank spaces on each sheet so that more words can be added. Again, you will need Adobe Acrobat to view and save these documents.
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Click on the contents list to go to the words you'd like to see, or scroll down to see them all.
Contents:
- Words to Describe Rain
- Words to Describe Urban Degeneration
- Words to Describe Foxes and Fox-like Behaviour
- Rooms in a Stately Home
- Words for Shades of Brown and Red
- Words to Describe Retro Design
- Names of Hardy Plants and Flowers
- Cylindrical Things
- Words to Describe Art Deco Design
- English Words That Sound French
- Ingredients for a Fictional Feast
- Depressing Slimming Food
Words to Describe Rain
Words to Describe Urban Degeneration
Words to Describe Foxes and Fox-like Behaviour
Rooms in a Stately Home
Words for Shades of Brown and Red
Words to Describe Retro Design
Names of Hardy Plants and Flowers
Cylindrical Things
Words to Describe Art Deco Design
English Words That Sound French
Ingredients for a Fictional Feast
Depressing Slimming Food
You want to describe a dreich stormy night in Scotland, yet you find yourself writing: "The rain poured in sheets," a hundred times. This list gives ideas for other ways to refer to rain.
Your character is in a nasty urban wasteland. This list gives suggestions of words to describe what she sees and feels there.
Urban Degeneration Word List in PDF form
There can only be one Volpone, but many a crafty villain behaves like a fox. How would you describe him? This list may help.
I do love a story set in an enormous stately home. This list summarises the rooms the house may have, as well as lots of names for parts of the grand estate.
Rooms in a Stately Home List in PDF form
After you've read this list, your character will no longer be dressed in brown cords with a red cardigan. His trousers will be chocolate-coloured and his cardigan magenta.
Browns and Reds Word List in PDF form
Your characters will be at their coolest in rooms filled with lime green shaggy rugs and hessian wall hangings. The words are mainly associated with interior design from the 60s and 70s.
Retro Design Word List in PDF form
Why would anyone other than a gardener need a list of hardy plants? I don't know, but I needed this list because I wanted to name a fictional company after a hardy flower. For this reason, the words are "easy on the ear" and the list is not meant to be botanically exhaustive.
Hardy Plant Word List in PDF form
I have completely forgotten why I felt compelled to make a list of cylindrically-shaped objects. Probably just as well, really.
Cylindrical Things Word List in PDF form
I gathered these words to help me to create a general mood in my writing and to describe a fictional Art Deco building.
Art Deco Design Word List in PDF form
This is a list of English words that sound French. What I was looking for here was the sound of the word, rather than whether it was French in the etymological sense.
List of English Words That Sound French in PDF form
So your characters are sitting down to eat a posh feast. What on earth can you serve them? After being stranded at the banqueting table for a year, my poor party-goers rejected the first meal I served them, and so to help my brain cook up a more palatable and convincing feast, I compiled the following list of ingredients. I was influenced by the type of food the party host prefers. She is grand, elegant and ferociously old-fashioned, so I haven’t added food like steak or more tropical ingredients such as mango or papaya.
Ingredients for a Fictional Feast Word List in PDF form
First the feast and then the famine. When I wrote this word list, I was looking at weight loss foods that give you that sinking, dispirited feeling when you imagine them on a plate. I didn't take these foods from a particular eating plan, nor do I know the nutritional rationale behind them. Rather, what I wanted to do was make a list of faddish, awful-sounding “healthy meals” to put at the disposal of a fictional character who is a weight-loss fanatic.