Dear fellow writer,
Welcome to Swordswings, my monthly podcast series for writers in motion. These recordings are intended for you to listen to when you’re moving around — which is a great way to get your writing moving as well.
Today’s half-hour Swordswing follows on from last month’s Wordcraft Walk, in which I discuss how concrete nouns and dynamic verbs can propel our prose as surely as muscles and bones propel our bodies. Zombie nouns make a cameo appearance in that episode, but they’re not the main focus.
Today, I tell the story of how and why I came to publish a piece called “Nominalizations are Zombie Nouns” in the New York Times back in 2012 — and what happened when I (metaphorically) transformed a nerdy grammatical entity into a flesh-eating monster. Enjoy!
My Swordswings podcasts have swung out from behind the paywall and are now available to all Helen’s Word subscribers. What’s more, you can now listen the whole series wherever you download your podcasts. As before, WriteSPACE members can find the audio files and transcripts of all Swordswings episodes in the Audio section of their WriteSPACE Library.
Is your own writing teeming with zombie nouns? Never fear — there’s still time to join my Wordcraft Catalyst, a 6-week course for scholarly and professional writers who want to unlock the secrets of grammar, syntax, and style. I’d love to see you there!
Kia pai tō koutou rā (have a great day) – and keep on writing!
Helen
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The Zombie Noun Walk