Orlando Word Lab

This is a writing workshop that meets on the 4th Wednesday of every month at the Winter Park Library. We focus on learning a new technique or method each month. A guest speaker will share a sample of their work and then give a writing prompt for everyone to follow.

We'll all write for 30 minutes, and then share our work with others, and receive helpful suggestions about what to improve. Bring your laptops, tablets, a notebook and pen, and a willingness to learn.

This month, Ken Pelham will talk to us about Right Word, Wrong Time: Avoiding the Traps of Etymology.

If you write fiction or creative nonfiction set in the past, you’re bound to use words that are not true to the setting. Granted, most readers won’t spot the mistakes, but some will, and some will stop reading then and there. And gleefully broadcast your goof-ups to the world.

The happy news is, such mistakes can be minimized. In order to make your prose and poetry as true to place and time as can be, the writer must do the grunt work, the research, and take care to use that knowledge wisely.

We'll be treated to real-life examples of improper usage in fiction, and we'll learn the reliable resources on the proper use and evolution of words, jargon, and phrases.

Ken Pelham has won eleven Royal Palm Literary Awards in both fiction and nonfiction. A member of International Thriller Writers, his novels Brigands Key and Place of Fear both won first-place RPLAs. His nonfiction book, Out of Sight, Out of Mind: A Writer’s Guide to Mastering Viewpoint, was named Royal Palm 2015 Published Book of the Year, and his book exploring the evolution of genre fiction, Gumshoes, Fangs, Rockets, & Spies, won the 2021 RPLA Gold for History.