It's What's For Lunch.

So I'm editing this flashback scene where my main character is with her future husband, standing on a cliff at the Oregon coast. It's windy. And cold. She's trying to admire the view and take it all in, but there's this wind (it's the Oregon coast, you know). As I'm looking through this scene, the wind is the primary factor--it's whipping her hair into her face, stinging her eyes. It's this lens through which everything else is interpreted and experienced. And the problem becomes: how many ways you can describe the wind?

Enter the Word Menu.

I love my Word Menu. If you have a writer or a lover of language on your gift list, listen very closely. The Random House Word Menu is every bit as tasty as it sounds (I'd definitely spring for the more expensive 800 page version instead of the $6.99 mass market paperback one, though). Instead of words being listed alphabetically in the old school dictionary/thesaurus sort of way, the Word Menus lists words categorically. For example:

I'm working in my windy scene. So I go the table of contents and see that Part One, which is the nature section, has a chapter devoted to weather words on page 87. Within the weather words chapter is an entire section on wind. Now I'm having some serious fun. An austral wind is a southerly wind. A bise is a cold, dry, northerly wind in the alps. A foehn is a warm, dry wind blowing down a mountainside; unless it's night, in which case we could use the phrase katabatic wind for that breeze coming down the mountain. A tourbillion is a whirlwind. A williwaw is a sudden, violent squall of cold wind, common on mountainous coasts at near-polar latitudes. An hour later, I'm so many pages past wind that it surprises me, because I could read these words forever.

Let's say you have a character (we'll call him Bob) who you need to amp up a bit, someone who needs some dimension to him, something interesting and quirky. You might try chapter 17, "Leisure and Recreation." On page 505, you'll find a list of words having to do with hobbies. Sure, the expected hobbies appear: taxidermy, coin collecting, glass painting. But did you know that Bob could perhaps be an expert at the art of ikebana (Japanese flower arranging) or manege (training and skilled riding of horses)?

Consider all the ways this changes the way we think about words and usage. If you don't want to consider, you can choose another word from the "Verbs of Thought" chapter on page 607.

Word Menu. It's what's for lunch.