Saturday, July 26, 2008

Word Clouds

Today I found an awesome site for us writers.

It's called Wordle and it generates word clouds like this:



The above picture is derived from the entire text of my fifth book, Go Look There, which is a magical realism novel about strange things happening among the children of a particular Southern town.

Here's another, taken from the combined text of all of my favorite poems I've written:




Mostly what I found from this is that I'm a big fan of similes, which I knew, but when the word 'like' was twelve feet tall it really hit home. So I did a Find & Replace command in Microsoft Word (Which you can do by pressing control+F or apple key+f) and replaced 'like' with a space so I could REALLY find out what my most commonly used words are.

Anyway, this was really cool and I'd be eager to see your pictures of what words you use most commonly.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I noticed "butterflies" is pretty big.

I'd have you know that I was taking a shower when you posted. My mobile (sitting on the counter) beeped an alert. I got out of a hot shower to read this. Which is saying a lot. ;)

Sometime, look up the song "Death in her Room"... God, I can't get this song out of my head. Euro-pop synth weirdness.

- Jaden

Anonymous said...

As much as I loved Coffee & People (or whatever it's called; sorry, I haven't read it in a very long time), I'm really beginning to lose respect for you, because you found a book series and an author you loathe, and you can't just let it pass you. You can't accept that you don't like it, and you continue to keep talking about it.

Personally, I think that you should stop talking about him and his book series, and start getting back on topic with what this blog was originally created for: writing tips, advice, etc.

Not too mention, you said you wrote five books better than his? I think it's good that you're so sure of yourself, but it's sounds kind of cocky to be like, "I write books better than him. Five times," and it just sounds like, I don't know, you have a big ego or something, maybe?

This is just my advice, and my comment to you, and I thought I'd get it out there.

p.s. I'm pretty sure I commented before on this, too.

Anonymous said...

The author she writes about is the sort that we CANNOT stop talking about. It's like telling a Southern preacher to stop talking about Jee-hee-zee-us, or a politician to stop running his mouth about CHANGE!

People who tell the truth always get flack, Savannah. Keep the cause. ;)

- Jaden

Anonymous said...

An Anonymous challener who is self-righteous? Are you talking about me (though you would be off on saying I'm thirteen and I don't remeber telling you to write a book as well as Paolini)
or is someone else stealing my position on this blog?
lol

~Tally Marx
(PS: Savannah, good luck on getting published. Don't let getting a few (or a lot) of rejections get you down. There are thousands of publishing companies and agents out there. I read Woman's World and, though it's not my type of book, I thought it was good.)

Anonymous said...

Hey
Savannah...

Post something.

- Jaden

Mathilda said...

Hmm... maybe this silence means something? Like she got an agent and is busy editing? Maybe she died... or she's forgotten how to put on the computer?
Have you, Savannah?

Thing in the Coat said...

I begin to leave my unwanted comments on this blog semi-quasi-occasionally-regularly, and then it dies.

I always seem to have this effect on things.

Anonymous said...

andshesalone: "it just sounds like, I don't know, you have a big ego or something, maybe?"

Understatement of the century?