Knapping a Nap -- Brenda J. Wood

Did you know that ‘knapping’ means to chisel or hammer something such as a stone so that it breaks into flakes?

That’s what we do with our words. We take big chunks of thought and break/ brake them into memorable sentences, like the following ones (authors unknown.)

To write with a broken pencil is pointless.

When fish are in schools they sometimes take debate.

When the smog lifts in Los Angeles .... UCLA.

The professor’s earthquake theory stood on shaky ground.

After her marriage, she got a new name and a dress.

If a piano falls down a mineshaft, it produces A-flat miner.

A boiled egg is hard to beat.

When you've seen one shopping center you've seen a mall.

Take a laptop computer for a run and jog your memory.

And what about these aphorisms?

(Aphorism -- succinct statement expressing an opinion or general truth).

The nicest thing about the future is that it starts tomorrow.
Seat belts are less restrictive than wheelchairs.
Keep your mouth shut when you're in deep water.

Happy hour after age 60 is called naptime.

Oh, now we are back where I started!

Napping may be a period of short light sleep, especially during the day.

OR small soft fibres sticking up from the surface of a fabric like velvet. OR to be inattentive or off guard

OR even a pre-treatment for Agent Orange.

Consider how our writing would leap into the new and exciting if we twirled our words a bit. What about adding something like this to your romance novel?

His nap didn’t lie all in the same direction.

OR Her nap left her feeling like she’d been doused in Agent Orange
OR He caught her napping over the bank statement.

Strange and unusual wording makes the difference between us and the other guys. However, our words must be easily understood by readers. That’s why John Grisham sells millions of books while Boxford Blunt’s “Scuttlebutt on Mrs. Murgle’s Knowgensia” lies in a desk drawer.

Here is good advice from an expert writer who knew how to write an interesting and easily understood phrase. His classics continue to sell around the world.

2 Corinthians 1:13-For we write you nothing else but simply what you can read and understand [there is no double meaning to what we say], and I hope that you will become thoroughly acquainted [with divine things] and know and understand [them] accurately and well to the end (AMP)

After all that, just stop napping, take up your pen and just keep writing. After all, a straight (vertical) pen sure beats out a horizontal one.



Brenda Wood, author & speaker

Meeting Myself, Snippets from a Binging and Bulging Mind
The Big Red Chair-storybook for grieving children
Heartfelt-366 Devotions for Common Sense Living
God, Gluttony & You, the Bible Study
http://heartfeltdevotionals.com
www.facebook.com/brendawoodspeaker