We all do it, or so I’d like to think.

We find a way to finagle our favorite words into a paper or review or email or possibly even a text.  But have you ever taken the time to identify those words that you manage to inject into any and everything you write? If you’re anything like me, you not only have identified the words, but when editing your works, you need to go through a deduping process to make sure you haven’t become victim to overuse, in which case your audience has or will catch on, and whatever positive impression you wanted to make will garner the opposite response. (Long sentence, 57 words, possibly a record for me.)

I usually try to anchor my writings with one or two, at the very least, of my favorite words. Rest assured, the task is not a daunting one. Deploying the chance to use a favorite word is akin to a chocolate lover’s  delight when the teeth sink into a salted caramel. Simply put, when I do it, it feels good–really good.

A little like online dating, the favorited word landscape can change in a tinder heartbeat. “Strategic” can be in one day, swipe left the next— which was the case for me between 2017 when it made my list, and now. Sometimes I view myself as a trendsetter. But, when everyone else gets on board with my favorite lexicon, as Mr Wonderful likes to say on Shark Tank,  “I’m out” and swipe left, the word is banished from my vocabulary.

As a rule my blog subjects don’t generate a lot of buzz. For the life of me, I don’t know why. With topics  not completely dissimilar to this one–  Language, ageing wisdom, subtle negative imaging of women in Hallmark Christmas movies—I would have thought to have established a cult following by now. My future as an influencer is in jeopardy. You dear reader, can change that. Let’s see if we can go viral with what our thumb-tapping friends and colleagues are sneaking into their writings that’s scratching their vocabulary itch.

Did you figure out mine? Here they are: landscape, generate, lexicon, daunting, anchor, deploy, garner, missive (an oldie but goodie)…and robust, which the more astute among you may notice, i did not actually deploy, er–I mean, use.  What this rafter of words says about me, I’ll leave to you–but keep it kind.