My Creative Mojo

About a year ago I realized I had the knack for making up fake words, often by changing a single letter or combining portions of words that have a similar sound. At times I’ll hear someone mispronounce a word — and while most nice people let it slide because they know the intended word, I either give them a hard time about it, or I quietly write it down so I can use it later.

While driving home from Pasadena one afternoon, I turn on the radio. It’s the Griffith Observatory Sky Report. The guy speaking is very articulate, but when he says “astronomy,” I hear “pastronomy“. I know that’s not what he said, but “pastronomy” is what my brain chose to hear.

My brain has a quick habit of bastardizing words — call it a disease or a skill, it’s your pick.

When I get home, I flip through several notebooks to see what other words I had jotted down recently. Anything that sounds funny, intriguing, or even sick gets written down, and often lost in a stack of notebooks scribbled full of ideas, thoughts and words. Here and there I find more fake words. Crackupuncture. Gerildo. Hummiside. Phlegmonade. Manchovy. Deceastiality. (Yeah, they’re not all pretty, but they create a lasting image.)

Then comes the challenge — Could I create a new word every day for the next year? I don’t know. Initially I resist the idea and have an out loud conversation with myself about it, then I take the challenge. Let’s see if I can intentionally bastardize more words, rather than just wait for the word ideas to happen on their own. That’s how my “Fake Word Of the Day” blog began on Dougtionary.com. That’s right, I even bastardized the term “Dictionary” and satisfied my inner narcissist at the same time.

As of today I’m at post #350, and the one year mark will be on Oct 17.

Feel free to peruse my “wordorific” blog, post comments and rate the words.

Using existing speech is just lazy. Why should we restrict ourselves to words that already exist when we can create our own?

www.dougtionary.com