by Naomi L. | December 14, 2015 | Blog, Word of the Week |
Word: paramount
Pronunciation: PAR-ə-mount
Part of Speech: adjective
Definition: more important than anything else; supreme
Source: Oxford Dictionaries
No, not the movie studio nor the city in California. Today’s Word of the Week is a good one to use for the most important things in your stories. Sometimes when you need to convey a tone of great urgency in your writing, adjectives like “vital” and “crucial” simply aren’t enough. For those events that just can’t wait, “paramount” may be exactly the word you need!
Something described as “paramount” is of the utmost importance. The word arose in the mid 16th century and comes from the Anglo-Norman French adverb paramont, meaning “above”. This adverb comprises two Old French roots: the preposition par “by” and the adverb amont “above”.
While it’s commonly used as an adjective for extremely important things or events, “paramount” can also be used to describe people with supreme power, such as a “paramount” chief. Based on its definition, I assume this word sits at the very end of the importance spectrum and thus should only be used for the most critical of events. If your characters tend to face situations that must be dealt with right away, you may have room for some “paramount” points in your stories!
What are your thoughts on this word? Any suggestions for future “Word of the Week” featured words?
by Naomi L. | December 14, 2015 | Blog, News |
Oh yes, The Wolfe’s (Writing) Den is getting a major revamp! After two and a half years of blogging, I decided it was high time for a makeover. If you’re one of my regular readers, you may have noticed some changes to my site this weekend. In case you’re wondering what this update is all about, here’s a quick rundown of what’s new.
New theme!
The biggest change to my blog is the addition of a new theme: Divi by Elegant Themes! While I was happy with my previous theme – the Scribble child theme for the Genesis Framework by StudioPress – it did have one fundamental flaw: it was not mobile-responsive. With at least half your potential audience wielding smartphones, accessibility through mobile devices is extremely important for blogs these days, so I felt the need to upgrade to a highly customizable and responsive new theme for a more professional look. Hopefully now my blog will be much more aesthetically appealing to you mobile readers out there!
New logo and banner
With a fresh theme comes a fresh image! Every serious website needs its own unique image, so I had a talented young artist I know design a logo and banner with a couple of new characters for my blog. Introducing Jay and Wolfe, my new “blog mascots”! You’ll see them on my homepage and in the headers of my social media profiles. I think they add a little more charm to my blog, don’t you?
(Coming soon!) Guest posts and Indie Writer Spotlight interviews
Since I started blogging, I’ve been terribly possessive of my content. Every single one of the 400+ posts that have been published here was written by me, and the closest I’ve ever come to letting another author create content for my site is sharing infographics and accepting submissions for “What If?” Writing Prompts.
Now that I’m ready to start taking blogging a little more seriously, I’m considering opening up submissions for guest posts in the near future. I’d also like to continue my Indie Writer Spotlight segment soon by interviewing more indie authors about their books. So if you’re a blogger looking to expand your network and/or an indie author hoping to gain more exposure for your book, be sure to keep an eye out for updates about guest post exchanges and author interview requests! Information will be available on my Contact page, so feel free to send me a message!
That’s it for this news update! Minor features will continue to roll out as I find my way around this new theme, so expect to see some changes around the site over at least the next few weeks. I hope you’ll enjoy this major update of my blog! Thanks for reading, and have a great week!
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