November 09, 2016

Z - The Letter Z




It’s pretty hard to include words that begin with Z in your writing. There really aren’t that many Z words to begin with, or not that many words that would make sense for most books.


Here are quotes from Seismic Crimes with the letter Z:

- He put his hand over hers and then pulled her in for a soft kiss. When he inched back, he whispered in her ear, “This may sound crazy, but I love you.”

- Five officers stood near the entrance, guzzling water from bottles and listening to the reports coming in on their radios.

- The lights in the women’s restroom buzzed to life, illuminating the stretch of sinks and stalls.

- Beth groaned and knocked her head back onto his shoulder. “I’m not a patient person.”
He nuzzled her neck. “I can see that.”

-  With a jerk back on the wheel, he leveled the truck onto all fours and zeroed in on an obstacle ahead—a series of small mounds.

- He grinned in answer and lined the truck up with the biggest ramp on the field. The truck zoomed up it.

- She lifted the lid, and her nerves fizzled like stale soda.

- While listening to the hum of the subterranean cable and the clang of the bells, Beth felt oddly zen-like.

- Buck may be happy now but he won’t be once Donovan zaps him in the ass with that stun gun.

- She was cradling her arm to her chest and wailing as if she wanted Zeus on Mount Olympus to hear her.

- She stood a moment, paralyzed by her mental and physical exhaustion and hypnotized by the rising smoke.



- Every bump in the road jarred him from his light slumber, though, and sent electricity zigzagging along his rib cage.

To read more:



QUESTION: What Z words (or words with Z's in them) have you used in your writing?


46 comments:

  1. Hi Chrys .. you must have needed a ZiZZ to think about this Z post ... well done ... cheerz (good with a Z?) Hilary

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  2. The Z's are sure there, they can be hard to work in when it comes to Z. Zeus sure is the top Z though.

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    1. I don't know if another Z could possible top Zeus.

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  3. What a fabulous way to share excerpts! So fun! I love it. (And I love the excerpts too.)

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  4. For A to Z in April, I've used zonked, and zoinks. And, of course, my shop. I do use the letter Z every day. My name is Liz...

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    1. Ha! How lucky to have the letter Z in your name. ;)

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  5. You certainly found some. I'm sure zero has shown up in mine. Maybe a herd of raging zombie zebras is needed?

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  6. If your excerpts weren't so dazzling, I'd be catching some zees (sp) like a crazy old buzzard too lazy to zip up and buzz over to the zoo! I haven't officially crossed into the Zany zone, I just love word challenges:-) Fun post, Chrys!

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    1. I love your comment, Diedre! You're so creative. How long did it take you to come up with that? :)

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    2. Six minutes. Regrettably, it's all the time I had. You, my dear, are a veritable fountain of inspiration!

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    3. I think it would take me ten minutes to come up with something like that. ;) Thanks, Diedre!

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  7. Zionism is a big one in my writing (and no, I've never believed that's a dirty word, just as I've never believed feminism, Marxism, Socialism, and Communism are dirty words either). Other Z words I've used include zoo, zoology (pronounced ZO-ology, not ZOO-ology, as my zoology professor impressed upon me), zipper, zip, zing, zither, and zealous.

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    1. Those are great Z words! I'm happy that you incorporate these into your writing. :)

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  8. I remember struggling with Z when I was highlighting bloggers on A - Z once. I think I used Zia Maria. But there's lots of Z words when you think about it.

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  9. You did honour to the letter Z. Do you pronounce it as Z in Zed, or Z as in Z like sled? I like that if you put Z to bed it becomes N. How many other letters can say that?

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  10. That's an impressive amount of z-words. I don't think we even use half that many in our writing. Unless you count our zombie novel, but that's kind of cheating at that point.

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    1. I suppose repeating the word "zombie" throughout a work would be cheating. :P

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  11. Trying to think about words that start with Z without using Google and, my I do agree with you. It's a challenge.

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    1. It is! It's hard to come up with one that's not common.

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  12. Zoins...what a fun word. The first one to comes to mind is zombie, but we don't have any in your books. LOL
    sherry @ fundinmental

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    1. I did start a zombie story but set it aside. ;)

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  13. Those are some interesting "z's". I can't think of any in my work. My brain is still asleep. Zzzzz that's snoring. Does it count? :)

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  14. You could stick in a character with a Z name... I have a book I am thinking about querying that has both a Zeke and a Zoe... I like z... it makes my mouth tingle.

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    1. The MC in my current work in progress has a name that starts with Z. I couldn't resist. :)

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  15. Blitz. Fizz. Great examples from Seismic Crimes. Too bad it couldn't be 'Seizmic Crimes' :) I hadn't really thought about zed words so this is a cool post. Thanks, Chrys!

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    1. Seizmic Crimes would've driven up my "z" letter count a lot! ;)

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  16. I named one of my oazmir (hey look, a z!) Zinnia. So I guess I got to use it more often than not. :)

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  17. The zealous zebra loved playing her zither that was the colour of Zaffre:)

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  18. Fun post, Chrys! I've just done a quick search in my MS and I my z words seem to be horizon', 'frozen', 'freeze' and 'froze' (some of it is set in the mountains which makes sense I guess!). I'll have to try and include a few more!

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    1. It seems that your story is a cold one. :) I'll be using those a lot in my next project.

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  19. The only "Z" word I can think of right now is "zap," as in I wish I had a wand that could "zap" Trump back to the planet he came from and make Hillary Clinton the new President.

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    1. LOL! I think many wish they could do the same thing.

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  20. I'll bet you find more Z words than you originally thought you had. In the early stages of my WIP, one of the characters is named Zelda. Ultimately, I decided to change the character name Gretchen.

    Other Z's
    Gazed - She took his hand and both of their smiles immediately widened. They gazed into each other’s eyes.

    Crazy - The truth was somewhat embarrassing to Erick, but he figured there would be no harm in letting her know. He hoped she would agree Jenni was crazy.

    Buzzed, Snooze & Lazy - The alarm buzzed for the fifth time. Once again, Kenny hit the snooze button; once again, his mother called up the stairs for him to get his lazy butt out of bed.

    I decided to stop there. ;)

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    1. Thanks for sharing examples from your story! I liked getting these little snippets. :D

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  21. Congrats on finishing your alphabet posts! Just for fun, I looked at my recent story to find words with z. I had: analyzed, breeze, unfazed, buzzing, frozen, zigzagged, dazed, and my name, of course :)

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    1. You're the first to notice that is my last alphabet post! Thanks!!! :D

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