Ellie's Vocabulary Tutorial and Challenge

[Ellie]

Hello! I was sitting in the airport when this idea occurred to me.

About the Challenge

We all know that a key part of writing and role playing is an ever-growing vocabulary. So in order to inspire progress in this category, I have created a challenge thread. Once a month, I will post a list of ten words that Dictionary.com offers me.

If you choose to participate in this challenge, you must make sure you understand the definitions of these words, then write a sample using all of them. The sample can entail any sort of situation, but do keep your character IN character. There is no length restriction. Put the required words in bolded font. The challenge is in no way mandatory, but is most certainly helpful in building an extensive vocabulary.

A new set will be posted September 8th.

The Words

• Bedlam - a scene or state of wild uproar and confusion.
  
• Aporia - difficulty determining the truth of an idea due to equally valid arguments for and against it.
  
• Assay - to examine or analyze.
  
• Somatic - of the body; bodily; physical.
  
• Aureate - characterized by an ornate style of writing or speaking.
  
• Decollete - (of a garment) low-necked.
  
• Foist - to force upon or impose fraudulently or unjustifiably.
  
• Crotchet - an odd fancy or whimsical notion.
  
• Attenuate - to weaken or reduce in force, intensity, effect, quantity, or value.
  
• Haw - to utter a sound representing a hesitation or pause in speech.
  

Substitutions

These are words that can replace those low level, commonly used words and improve the quality of your writing.

• Thought - (Envisioned, regarded, realized, deemed, suspected, concluded, conceived)
  
• Walked - (Ambled, filed, meandered, traipsed, trudged, wandered, scuffed)
  
• Smiled - (Beamed, simpered, grinned)
  
• Saw - (Beheld, glimpsed, identified, spied, noticed, witnessed, noted, perceived, discerned)
  

If you can think of other commonly used words or other helpful additions to this Challenge & Tutorial, PM me, and I can add them as soon as possible.

Thanks, and write away!

[Wolfy]

It was a hot summer afternoon when Robin was told by her father to run ahead and scope out the throng of pedestrians for an easy target for a scam. Being an especially experienced girl for her age, she could tell just by the somatic appearance of a passer-by how gullible they were. For instance, a woman strode by wearing a dress with a decollate, nearly scandalous, neck-line. Her eyes had a sort of no-nonsense look about them, so Robin hurried right past her without a second thought. However, when an old man meandered by, greeting every man, woman, and child that filed past him in the other direction, the young girl turned to observe him.

Because of his peculiar crotchet, the man seemed determined to put a beaming smile on every person’s face that day. In those unfriendly times, this was a very unusual sight. Surely the goodhearted man would want her and her father to benefit from meeting him, right? Grinning, Robin turned on her heels and trotted back to Charlie. After telling her father about the old man coming toward them, Robin set off to scour the sidewalk for lost change.

Once she’d gotten about three dollars in pennies and dimes, mostly, she was distracted by a loud uproar coming from down the road. Pocketing the change, she sauntered down to where the noise was coming from. She came across a bedlam surrounding a couple familiar faces. Her father was standing in front of the old man, while the gentlemen addressed the crowd in a particularly aureate and old manner of speaking. “This man is a thief!” he said in a raspy voice. “Will no one believe me?” He reached over to a young man who was standing in the crowd. “Good sir, please, you will sympathize with me, won’t you?”

Robin watched in horror as the man’s gaze shifted to a glare and fixated on Charlie. All it would take was one snitch to put an end to all that she knew how to do. She’d grown up being a conman, and she wasn’t sure she’d be able to do anything else with herself. Charging into the group of people, she finally burst through to the center where her father was. “Wait!” she exclaimed in her pure British accent. “My father is no low-down thief!”

The entire crowd seemed to be feeling the confusion of aporia. As they assayed the two sides, it seemed that neither could lie. There was an old man who had just been giving everyone a warm greeting, but there was also a young British girl who seemed too young to know how to lie well. Little did they know that Robin had been lying for a living since she could speak. “And he’s no liar, either!” she finished, giving a look at the man with her hands on her hips.

The man let out a bewildered haw, not sure how to reply to such a blatant, outright lie. It was too late for him to have a chance to think of how to respond to the little girl, though, since the crowd’s trust in the man had already been attenuated. With a disgusted look and sometimes a disapproving headshake, the crowd dispersed and departed from the two quarrelling men. The man looked hurt, but didn’t confront the team of conmen to get his money back. He, too, wandered off into the stream of people walking down the sidewalk.

Robin didn’t know any better, though, and didn’t feel any guilt at all. She had no idea how wrong foisting the blame on that man really was. All she knew was that she didn’t have to worry about sleeping outside that night. Joining her father, he wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “That’s my girl,” he praised with a grin. Saying nothing more of it, he walked down the way to find their next victim.