CONFESSIONS OF A LEXIMAVEN

Amanda shares an online tool to feed (and regulate!) one's word addiction.
by Amanda Louise Miller 

Hello.  My name is Amanda Miller, and I am a "leximaven."  

In a nutshell:  I love words.   

I write, I read, I pin quotes on Pinterest - I even decorate my apartment with words.

(words, words, words in my grad school apartment)

Further proof:  In 8th grade, when I won the class award for English (thankyouverymuch!), Mrs. Thorberg preceded the announcement of my name with this description, delivered with delicious and dramatic pauses: 

“She reads... and reads... and reads some more.... then she writes.... and writes.... and writes some more.”  (Yeah, still having a hard time living that down -- thanks, Mrs. T.  ;)

Probably because of this obsession, one of my favorite places to procrastinate on the interwebs is www.wordle.net.  Wordle is an online graphic generator that uses your text to create cool-looking “cloud” graphics.  You can edit your images, save them, or publish them to Wordle’s online gallery, all for free.  Here’s an example from a song I'm currently working on (you can listen to it here):

("The City" Wordle)

One hint:  Wordle automatically takes out “common English words” (they call them “stopwords”) from your text.  If you want to add these words back into the mix, use the “Language” menu once your image has been created.

(Turning off stopwords after a Wordle has been created.)

Here is another song of mine with stopwords removed, and re-added: 

("Just Me," stopwords removed by Wordle)

(same lyrics WITH stopwords) 

 

For a writer who’s been accused of being overly verbose (I believe my sister’s term is “Gilmore-Girls-y”), Wordle can be a great tool for editing, too.  As proof, here's this post BEFORE I pruned (word count: 327).

(Wow, apparently I'm a big fan of the word "then.")

And here is the post you just read (word count:  260).

(That looks better.)
 

Proof, I guess, that for a true leximaven, while a picture may not be worth a thousand words, it's worth at least 67.  :)

AMANDA LOUISE MILLER , leximaven, is a non-traditional graduate student, working towards an MM in music composition at Oklahoma City University.  Currently, she is living the life of a summer-vacationing vagrant, spending most of her time on the road between her family and friends in Nebraska, and her apartment in Oklahoma City, with her chinchilla, Fosse, reluctantly in tow.
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Comments

[Joanna]

If you're a leximaven, logophile, and good ol' fashioned word-lover, you'll love this article from Brain Pickings earlier this week : http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/07/02/project-twins-unusual-words/

Incredible words matched with memorable graphics.