For the next few months, weekly writing tips will include word choice suggestions. That includes:
- colorful and original descriptions
- pithy words and phrases
- picture nouns and action verbs
- writing that draws a reader in and addicts them to your voice
I keep a collection of descriptions that have pulled me into the books. I’m fascinated how authors can–in just a few words–put me in the middle of their story and make me want to stay there. This one’s on how to describe geeks.
Click for the complete list of 69 writer’s themed descriptions.
A note: These are for inspiration only. They can’t be copied because they’ve been pulled directly from an author’s copyrighted manuscript (intellectual property is immediately copyrighted when published).
Geek Speak
- Sigh
- Happy happy
- Waves
- Wrinkles nose
- shudders
- blush
- I was buffering
- See you in the stream
- pain in the Net–Slang for a very annoying flamer.
- Didn’t ping on the danger
- blamestorming describe “sitting around in a group discussing why a deadline was missed or a project failed and who is responsible.”
- “we can breadcrumb this section so we don’t have to pile up content in the left nav.”
- decruitment–a corporate euphemism for laying off workers.
- power luser–Computer user with the uncanny ability to screw things up so bad that either the damage is irrevocable or restoring from the last back-up is the only hope.
- under mouse arrest–busted for violating online service’s rules
- holy war–Perpetual BBS discussions that never die, the arguments never change, and no one’s opinions ever budge one iota. “Holy wars” are fought over abortion, gun control, Mac versus IBM, Windows versus DOS, and how much nudity to allow in the image areas of online services.
- keyboard plaque–the disgusting buildup of dirt and crud found on computer keyboards. “Are there any other terminals I can use? This one has a bad case of ‘keyboard plaque’.”
- looking for Mr. GoodVar–trying to find VAR resources on the Web.
- mecca Slang for anything mechanical (as opposed to “orga,” organic).
Geek hobbies
- Rubic’s cube
- Ham radios
- Poetry for programmers
Geek characteristics
- Over-developed sense of spatial reasoning
- The one man on the planet—outside of Steve Jobs—who actually understood all the settings on an iPhone
- Sees patterns
Bad Geek stuff:
- Use the hotel’s Wi-Fi service to plant viruses on the computers of multiple guests. Once the computers were infected, he could control them remotely, even after they left the hotel. Without their owners being any the wiser, he used his network of zombie machines to covertly send and receive data without revealing his involvement.
- Hacking from a different apartment complex, using a different ISP, and a different set of bounce points to frustrate tracing his signal.
- Go to the autocorrect on a person’s computer. type in a word such as commonly used pronouns to be replaced by stupid words and watch em go nuts trying to write a report.
Most popular collections:
57 Ways to Describe Talking in a Novel
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is the author/editor of over a hundred books on integrating tech into education, adjunct professor of technology in education, webmaster for four blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, monthly contributor to Today’s Author and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. You can find her books at her publisher’s website, Structured Learning.
Pingback: How to Talk to a Geek | WordDreams...
Pingback: How to Talk to a Geek – Guest Post by, Jacqui Murray… | Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog
Pingback: 22 Cybersecurity Descriptions | WordDreams...
Pingback: 45 Transitions That Help Your Story Flow | WordDreams...
Pingback: 34 Ways to Describe Eating and Drinking | WordDreams...
Reblogged this on quirkywritingcorner.
LikeLike
I hope you’re not the bad geek sort, Jacqui! 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
It depends upon which day we’re talking about. There are some…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Pingback: 34 Ways to Describe Scents | WordDreams...
Hahaha… love this list…. ´See you in the stream´ is one of my favorites above here….
great post, dear Jaqui… thanks for sharing… *waves* Aquileana 🎇 ~
LikeLiked by 1 person
That fits Tweeple and FB Folks too. I think everyone is getting a geek attitude.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I burst out laughing when I read this title. Geeks need describing too. It’s only fair. 🙂
Anna from elements of emaginette
LikeLiked by 1 person
I bet you’ve heard some description you can’t even repeat. Am I right?
LikeLiked by 1 person
I will not admit to anything. *nods slightly*
LikeLiked by 1 person
Fascinating stuff. The bad geekery about messing with the autocorrect cracked me up.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I actually tried something similar. Not quite as devious though.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Loved the bad geek stuff. Have another one for you: bounces from one receiver to another when he hacks so you can never find him.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh yes, very popular. And they make it sound so easy!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Some great ones here. I am now looking for a chance to drop ‘I was buffering’ into a conversation.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It actually happens often, doesn’t it? Who doesn’t need to pause to collect their thoughts?
LikeLike
Ha ha! It is a new language!!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It is that. In education, we call it domain-specific: applies only to techie geekie stuff. Cool hunh?
LikeLiked by 1 person
That is some horrible geek stuff, lol. Those are some interesting hobbies.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sure is. If I were 40 years younger, it would be me.
LikeLike
Wonderful!
Add my sons’ names to the list – #29, #30.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hehe. I’ll call them next time I need some adjectives.
LikeLiked by 1 person
BTW, my son says NEVER use someone else’s Wi-Fi, especially in a common environment. Like sharing toothbrushes, you get all their incurable diseases.
LikeLiked by 1 person
And he is absolutely right, but no one ever listens to me! Good grief.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Love this. You got some good chuckles out of me too, Jacqui. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
The geek I added to my story is pretty humorous, though true to nature, I think.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Fantastic list. Wonderful ideas. Thanks, Jacqui, for sharing. 😀 ❤
LikeLiked by 1 person
My pleasure. In case you ever want to add a geek to your short stories.
LikeLike
I totally grok that list. and there are patterns and anti-patterns. My job is to encourage patterns and remove anti-patterns.
And a important geek hobby these days is “making.” Look up “maker’s fairs” and see what the geek crowd is up to.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I haven’t heard of ‘anti-patterns’. The lack of a pattern where there should be one? Or ??? Very interesting.
Makers Fairs are big in education, too. Kids don’t realize how geeky they are.
LikeLike
from wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-pattern, ” is a common response to a recurring problem that is usually ineffective and risks being highly counterproductive.” In any design task we try to create patterns that are effective and achieve goals quickly and efficiently.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s interesting, Andrew. That’s a very popular approach to problem-solving: Trying the same failed approach over and over expecting a different result.
LikeLike
Oh my, the last thing listed on the “Bad Geek stuff” is so mean…but it would be funny to try. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nasty! If that doesn’t convince everyone to put a password on their computers, they can’t be helped!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Reblogged this on Don Massenzio's Blog.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for the reblog, Don.
LikeLiked by 1 person
My pleasure. I am a Geek so I can relate easily.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ah. I didn’t know that. It’s fun, innit?
LikeLike
I had to read the ‘geek speak’ twice and it still is like a foreign language! 😀 Great selection, Jacqui.
LikeLiked by 1 person
So you aren’t a geek I gather? Andrew used one I forgot–grok. Geeks definitely have their own language–and they neologize like crazy. There isn’t a noun out there they can’t turn into a verb, and vice versa.
LikeLiked by 1 person