Verbify a name
‘My goal in life is to become an adjective’
I was thrilled last month when one of my clients asked me to “Wylie-ize” part of her website. (Thank you, Libby Catalinich!)
What’s in a name? Depends on how you use it. Image by Flood G.
I’ve always wanted to be a verb!
‘Joycean, Shakespearean, Faulknerian’
That reminded me of this exchange between characters in Jeffrey Eugenides’ The Marriage Plot:
“Bankheadian has a ring,” Madeleine said. “It’s better than Bankheadesque.”
“Or Bankheadish.”
“Ish is terrible all around. There’s Joycean, Shakespearean, Faulknerian. But ish? Who is there who’s an ish?”
“Thomas Mannish?”
“Kafkaesque,” Leonard said. “Pynchonesque! See, Pynchon’s already an adjective. Gaddis. What would Gaddis be? Gaddisesque? Gaddisy?”
“You can’t really do it with Gaddis,” Madeleine said.
“Bellovian,” Leonard said. “It’s extra nice when they change the spelling slightly. Nabokovian already has the v. So does Chekhovian. The Russians have it made. Tolstoyan! That guy was an adjective waiting to happen.”
“Don’t forget Tolstoyanism,” Madeleine said.
“My God!” Leonard said. “A noun! I’ve never even dreamed of being a noun.”
Now I feel a little sorry for Eugenides’ characters. They’re daydreaming about becoming adjectives and nouns. I’d much rather be a verb!
How can you verbify a name to make your copy more creative?
Share your favorites in the comments below.
Play With Your Words
Cut through the clutter of competing messages
There's a little piece of your brain — it's called the Broca's area — that's responsible for helping you sort through all of the many messages you get each day.
Well-worn phrases and familiar ideas don't activate the Broca's area. Plain old 'splainin' doesn't do anything for it either. But creative techniques like wordplay do.
At Master the Art of the Storyteller — our two-day hands-on creative-writing master class on July 25-26 in Portland — you’ll learn how to tickle your readers' Broca's area — and cut through the clutter of competing messages — with wordplay. Specifically, you’ll learn how to:
- Go beyond twist of phrase: Learn to flip phrases; compress details; sub soundalikes; list, rhyme and twist — even coin new words.
- Find online tools that do most of the work for you: Walk away with links to some of the best (free!) wordplay resources — as well as ideas for how to use them.
- Polish your skills in our wordplay workout: Get “recipes” for creating 14 types of wordplay, from anagram to etymology to oxymoron.
Learn more about our
Portland master class.
