How to Write & Publish a Short Story - Writing Tips & Advice

Below are some writing tips and advice which, in my humble opinion, can help you write better short stories and give you a much better chance of being published. They are based on my own experiences of writing and publishing stories, so I’m not just spouting nonsense (I hope).

Some of the points might seem like I’m stating the bleeding obvious, but sometimes common sense needs to be kept abreast of what’s common and sensible. Plus, it can be reassuring to know that other people have already found success by practicing tactics you intend to employ – I’ve certainly found this encouraging and helpful in the past.
I hope the advice is useful.

Read a Lot & Write a Lot

I find being hands on is the best way to learn. You need to read a wide variety of books and short stories. Then you need to write a lot to hone your writing skills and style. It’s like anything – practice does make perfect.

For example, I had a drum teacher called Terry O’Brien. He came from a military background. When he taught me a new rhythm, first I’d listen to him play it and then he’d make me play it 100 times while pacing around the room encouraging me, albeit in a Full Metal Jacket style while puffing on cigarettes. After 100 repetitions, I’d be able to play the rhythm.

Exactly the same principle applies to writing. The more you read and write, the better you become. The main difference with the drumming analogy is that it’s probably best not to have an angry sergeant shouting at you the whole time – it doesn’t do much to aid concentration.

Read

Get your eyeballs roving through loads of books. What do you like? Why? Read more. What don’t you like? Why? Read more.

There are many magazines (I recommend Scribble and Writers’ Forum) and websites which can give you access to inventive and inspiring stories. But also consider reading short story collections by authors like Roald Dahl, Philip K Dick, Ray Bradbury, Stephen King and other renowned short story writers. Why are their stories so successful? What makes them good? You can learn a lot from reading the work of quality authors – they have a large readership for good reason.

Write

Get your fingers on the keyboard and write. Then try and look at your work with the same critical, unbiased eye you use when reading someone else’s work. What do you like? Why? Write more. What don’t you like? Why? Edit accordingly.

You’ve read. You’ve practiced. What do you do next?

Research Your Market

This is probably the most important piece of advice I can offer. I know, all writing resources say the same thing, but that’s because it’s true.

If you’re starting out in short story writing and want a chance to win a competition, the best way to begin is by reading the previous winning stories so you can see what style the judges seem to prefer. If there are any comments about the stories the judges have chosen, read them and learn from them. Then write a story with what you’ve learned in mind.

It’s the same with approaching magazines. Buy a back issue. Read it. Learn what style the editor seems to favour. Would your style fit? What edits can you make to give yourself a better chance?

OK, now it’s time to start writing for real. Below are some tricks I use which often work.

Keep it Simple

Don’t crowd a story with too many characters. Loads of different names confuse readers.
Yes, I’m a drummer and have the attention span of a tiny fish, so I favour simplicity. But having only 1,000 to 5,000 words (ish – most short story competitions have word count limits between these figures) doesn’t give a lot of room for character development, especially if you’re introducing a reader to an entire football team. One, two or three central characters seem to work best to me.

Choose Character Names Carefully

Don’t confuse readers by using names which sound too similar. If you write a story about Ken, Len and Ben, it’s going to be hard to keep track of which character is which. Carter, Bronson and McGregor will be much easier for a reader to identify.

Use Novel Characters in Short Stories

If you’re writing a novel, use the book’s characters in your short stories. You’ll be so familiar with them, they should be easy to write and add believability to your short tale. Plus, it gives you the opportunity to test them out. Do they work? Do readers identify with them? Did they help you win a competition or get noticed by a magazine editor? If so, that bodes well for your novel. If not, you can catch problems early and fix them.

You can also use simplified sections of your novel’s plot for a short story, again, testing them out. Most novels have sub plots which will often make excellent short stories.

Short Story Titles

Give your story title the attention it deserves – if you don’t take the time to come up with an interesting title for your story, why should anyone take the time to read it? Make them enticing and entertaining.

If you need inspiration, buy a magazine like Scribble (which has lots of short stories in each issue) and see which titles stand out. Which stories do you feel drawn to, just by reading the title?

Beginning a Story

Try and make the first few paragraphs of your story gripping. Use hooks to grab the reader’s attention from the off. A good way of doing this is by providing a question the reader will want answered early on. For example:

I’m tied to a tree, living a nightmare set amongst a panorama of beauty. Over the past week I’ve been dragged up a mountain by my captor, his cruel eyes betraying a desire to which he’s unable to succumb. He needs me as he believes me to be – untouched.

This is taken from my story, The Treasure No Thief Can Steal which was published in Scribble. This opening paragraph sets the scene and places questions in the reader’s mind: Why has the narrator been dragged up a mountain? Why must she be untouched? What will her captor do when he finds out she isn’t virginal? My aim is to engage with the reader from the off, (hopefully) making them want to read more.

Dialogue & Speech

Dialogue can develop character and drive the plot forward. Use it to do both. For example:

‘I’m sorry to interrupt at such an ungodly hour,’ he says, his voice as deep as hell’s gong. ‘Put the gun away. It is useless to you.’

I do as he commands, not because I want to, but because I am unable to disobey. There’s a mesmerising quality to his voice which I realise I will have to fight if I want to act of my own free will.

‘You are Sergeant Joshua Purvis?’ he says.

I’m aware that I’m gawping. I try and say, ‘Yes,’ but all that emanates from my mouth is a kind of slurping mumble. I decide to forget talking for a moment and just nod.

‘Do you know who I am?’

‘Satan?’ I guess, pleased that I manage not to drool as I force the word from my mouth.

He snorts laughter, smoke spiralling from the holes in his face which I assume must be nostrils. ‘No,’ he says. ‘My name is Colin.’

I hear myself snigger.

‘I’ve taken a human name to seem less threatening,’ Colin continues, in a tone that suggests he is only imparting this information so he won’t find it necessary to tear my head off. ‘Names aside, you must concur, my master has excelled with the physical manifestation conjured for my eternal servitude?’

This is taken from another one of my stories, Devil’s Crush, which was published in Writers’ Forum. Joshua, a legless war veteran, has just discovered Colin, a demon, in his kitchen. I’m trying to allow the reader to learn about Colin through his speech, interspersed with the visual hints necessary to maintain the image of a demon in the reader’s mind. At the same time, I’m attempting to push the story forwards, by imparting information in the verbal exchange which builds character and plot. This is an important technique with short stories as, with strict limitations on word count, you have to make every word count. And throughout, I’ve also tried to use humour, keeping the style consistent. Have I succeeded? You tell me.

Ensure dialogue sounds convincing. If you’re unsure, read it aloud. Speaking the words can help you determine if the dialogue is working with you or sabotaging your plans with the deployment of excessive commas, adverbs and the use of perfect English even though no one ever says it that way out loud.

Situations & Characters

Concentrate on how the situation and the events in the story affect or change the central character.
I received this advice when I attended a ‘how to write a synopsis’ course at the Folk House in Bristol. It was run by a published writer called Billy Muir and was well worth the money. He suggested treating a synopsis like a short story – as you have so few words, use the central character to show how the events of the plot affect and change them. Interesting and sound advice – it works, and helped my short story writing greatly.

Sadly, I still can’t seem to write a decent novel synopsis, but that’s a different story…

Maintain Believability

Don’t make a character act in a certain way to suit your plot. Keep characters in character at all times. Let the character react to the situation as they would react, not as the plot dictates to be necessary. This helps believability and will make your story stronger.

Avoid Cliché

Always find a new and interesting way of saying something, rather than going for hackneyed phrases which have been used a gazillion times before. The only time I intentionally make exceptions to this rule is in dialogue, if I feel the character is likely to use clichés, although this is still best used sparingly.

Writing with an End in Mind

I’m not a fan of excessive plotting as I find it can be too restrictive on the imagination as you write. But having an end planned helps you drive the story in the right direction as you create it. Without an end goal, the plot can twist into an unsalvageable mess.

How to End a Short Story

Make the end of the story satisfying for the reader. Stories which fail to answer all the questions raised or resolve the situation can be disappointing. I know, this is a matter of taste, but satisfying endings appeal to the majority of readers. No, I’m not a fan of David Lynch.
Hopeful endings seem to work well. Again, this is personal taste and not appropriate for every occasion, but I’ve found tales that offer hope deliver a satisfying conclusion for the reader and have a good success rate in competitions.

You’ve written a masterpiece. What should you consider when entering competitions and approaching editors?

Obey the Rules

When entering a competition, read and obey the rules. If you don’t, you’ll be disqualified. When approaching a magazine editor with your work, read and abide by their submission criteria. If you don’t, your work will not be considered.

See what I mean about the bleeding obvious? Well, I mention this for good reason.
I’m currently involved with running the GKBCinc short story competition and the amount of entries that don’t comply with the rules is astounding. By undertaking this simple step, you put yourself ahead of about a fifth of the competition. Yes, that’s right. One fifth. Literally.

Correspondence

If you have to write covering letters (more common with approaching magazine editors than short story competition judges), keep them concise, informative and professional. And give it the same attention as your stories. A covering letter filled with typos looks awful.

Personalising a letter, rather than just sending a generic ‘to whom it may concern’ type creation, can also mean your work is more likely to be read. And if you can slip in a genuine, researched compliment, the person you’re writing to is likely to appreciate it. I’m not talking about a ‘your magazine is great’ kind of comment, I mean an ‘I particularly enjoyed the story by Mavis Von-Dinkle-Burp in your last issue – I was impressed with the realistic dialogue between the spider and the fly’ kind of comment – something that shows you’ve actually read the magazine and give a shit.

If you are fortunate enough to receive feedback from short story competition judges or magazine editors, read and learn from any constructive criticism they might offer. If you become angry and write snotty, argumentative replies, you destroy relationships. Be thankful they have replied to you. In these rare instances, the criticism is coming from a professional. Read it. Learn from it. Use it in a constructive way. Thank them for it. If you think it’s appropriate, ask if they’d be interested in considering the story again once you’ve edited it.

Never Give Up

If you think a story is worth writing, write it. Don’t listen to anyone else, including the Demon of Doubt who whistles his merry tune inside everyone’s head from time to time. Just do it.

If you don’t win the first competition you enter, don’t give up. What fails to appeal to one short story competition judge or magazine editor may still appeal to another. You will see that a lot of the stories on this website have been entered into many competitions before winning anything. If you gain any feedback from competition judges or editors, take it on board and see if you can improve your story before entering it in the next competition.

Maintain a Healthy Imagination

I promise you, I’m not suddenly turning into a tree hugging, druidic eccentric. I still love my motorbike, drinking beer and utilising my drumming to make ears bleed. This really is practical advice which does help creativity and productivity. Honest.

Exercise Regularly

In my experience, keeping fit really helps my writing. At the end of last year, I went into an unhealthy spiral of doom. On New Year’s Day, I woke up feeling like a big fat forty year old bag of shite. While stuffing down my first full English of the year, I encountered some horrific indigestion which failed to be quelled by a vat of Gaviscon. I decided it was time to embrace a healthier lifestyle.
I find that taking regular exercise, be it walking, running, cycling, swimming – whatever suits you – helps to keep creativity and the imagination alive. It also aids concentration and focus.

healthy body = healthy mind = better writing and story telling

Don’t believe me? Try it. Take daily exercise for a month. I’d be amazed if it doesn’t help your writing.

Eat a Healthy, Balanced Diet

It’s helped me lose weight. It’s made me feel healthier. I feel more alert, more creative, more inspired. My imagination is prolific and I’m writing a lot more. Combined with exercise, it really helps.

Don’t Drink too much Alcohol

There are tears running down my cheeks as I write this, but even I, a man who literally delights in supping beer, wine and other alcoholic wonderment, has to admit that overindulgence seriously knackers one’s ability to write.

I’m not saying don’t drink, I’m simply saying don’t drink excessively. Yawn. Snore. How dull. But it works.

In the left menu at the top of the page, there are links to pages listing short story competitions, short story magazines and book competitions, all offering chances for you to become a published writer.
I wish you the best of luck.

17 Self-Publishing Tips That Have Helped Me Sell Over 25,000 Books

When I was in my early 20s, I was fascinated by club promoters. How did they know so many people? How did they reliably fill up the clubs? I tried to be a promoter myself with a friend but we never brought more than 50 people each to the four parties we threw. It was fun, but we weren’t exactly successful.

What I didn’t understand was that those promoters brought value to other people, not just once, but continually and consistently. Even before they started throwing parties, they’d be the go-to source for asking advice on where to party. They’d always be at the clubs making sure people were having a good time. They’d buy rounds of drinks and make the night a little more enjoyable.

They already had a huge following by the time they decided to throw their first party. This is how bookselling works today. The book is the party, an afterthought to the value you’ve been bringing before it hit the Kindle store. Readers give you money not just for the book, but for all the free value you gave them before it was released.

I get a lot of emails from guys asking how to make money from selling books. This list is for them…

1. Ask not how to make money—ask how to bring value. How are you going to help or entertain people? No one cares about your goal to make $3,000 a month in book sales. They want to know how your writing will positively affect their lives. If you don’t know the benefits that people will receive from your writing, you will not be successful.

2. The blog is more important than the book. I don’t know of a single non-fiction self-published writer who is successful without having a blog. We’re not in the old times where you can drop a book out of thin air and have it be a best seller. Before you start writing the book, you should have a plan to blog for one year to build an audience. After one year of selfless writing where you ask for nothing in return, you may then start writing a book that you will sell to your readers. If you don’t have enough material to maintain an active blog and a book, you won’t make it.

3. The snobby author is dead. Readers want to correspond with the people they follow. You can’t pull a J.D. Salinger and be “mysterious” by disappearing from the face of the Earth. I remember once I asked an author if his book was available in ebook. He didn’t bother responding and I didn’t buy it. While I can’t reply to every tweet or comment left on my blog, I do respond to over 90% of my emails, even though it takes a considerable amount of time. Today’s writer should be more like a friend than an aloof celebrity.

4. The cover is more important than you realize. I know you’re thinking, “But Roosh, your covers suck!” This is true, but in my genre guys want nondescript covers that don’t get noticed in public. This is becoming irrelevant as we move to e-reading so don’t be surprised if my future covers become more descriptive and pretty. The most important thing is to have a cover that looks great as a thumbnail. Take note of Amazon’s “Customers also bought” section. If your thumbnail looks like crap there, it will get less clicks. I know you’ll be broke when doing your first book, but plunk down the $299 and get the cover done via 99 Designs.

5. You don’t need an editor, but you need a copyeditor. Readers hate typos. For them it feels wrong for a book to have them. They’ll put up with meandering prose and even grammar mistakes but typos get to them. Go to Elance and find a copyeditor to proofread your book before publication. It’s okay to send rough drafts to your friends for free to receive general comments, but you really need a pro to catch all the typos.

6. Don’t be stingy with review copies. You have to think long-term with your book, not just the first month of sales. Even if your audience is small, I wouldn’t give out less than 10 review copies. For Day Bang I gave out over 30.

7. Price the book at what your readers want, not what you want. This is how most authors price their book: “I want to make $2,000 a month, so if I price it at $20, I only have to sell 200 copies!” Newsflash: your readers don’t care how much you want to make per month. They want cheap books filled with content that makes them feel like they are getting a good deal. Therefore your book should be priced low, with absolutely no consideration to how much you want to make. Even I’m surprised how price sensitive customers are.

If someone buys my book for $9.99 and sees yours for $20, they’ll ask, “Well, it better be twice as good as Roosh’s.” If not then they will feel ripped off. You must price your book based on the market, and right now the market is driving prices down. Price it too high and you might as well just announce that you don’t want to sell any books at all.

8a. Fighting piracy hurts your readers more than the pirates. If I were to put a password on PDF files, or enable DRM on the Kindle edition, I would just be annoying readers. Pirates can’t be stopped, and caring about them shows that you’re more concerned about how much you earn than the reading experience of people who buy your book. Make it easier for customers by putting your book on all available outlets, such as Createspace (for paperback), Amazon (Kindle), and Smashwords (everything else). Again, pretend you’re a buyer. Wouldn’t you want the book easy to buy without DRM? You fail as a bookseller when you encourage a customer to go to Google and search for a pirated copy.

8b. Give so much value that your reader would feel bad about pirating your work. 80% of the information I give is free on my blog or newsletter. About 20% of my writing is packaged into books. So when a customer is faced with a choice to pirate the book or give me money, he chooses the latter. I lost count how many times guys told me, “Your book is the only one I didn’t pirate.” They know I’m not some soulless corporation, but one guy trying to put out good work.

9. Promote your book, but not too much. Imagine if I plugged my books on every post or tweet. You’d get annoyed because book promos are not value. Don’t think that having a large blog readership or Twitter following means people want to receive ads. Outside of book release days, the frequency at which you can promote your book should be “once in a while”. Leave a link to the book somewhere on your navigation bar and then shut up about it. People know about your book and reminding them every day is going to turn them off.

10. The blog is more important than the book. Yes I know this is at number two but I must stress how important it is. Even after your book drops, a project that took you god knows how many hours of blood and sweat to make, you have to keep blogging. You’re only just beginning! Your blog must be permanent and eternal, while the book is a secondary part of that. If you aren’t ready to accept this, your book will not make it in today’s publishing climate. Even when I go on a blog break of a couple weeks, I notice a dip in sales. Your blog is the heart that pumps oxygen to your book. Without the blog, your book dies.

11. Pray for luck on Amazon. If your book is in a hot niche and you have decent sales, it will be listed in the “Customers also bought” section of more popular books. My book Bang lists well under The Game and Mystery Method so it has enjoyed nice sales from people who don’t even know about my blog.

12. After releasing your first book, get to work on the second. To make a living from writing, one book is not enough. You need to keep going and put book after book after book, all while blogging. A lot of people see my ability to live abroad and don’t realize that my income came after blogging forever and putting out, as of this writing, thirteen books. Even though you think you only have one book on you, trust me when I say you’ll get the idea for a second after you complete the first. A good goal is to complete one book a year.

13. Use the end of one book to promote another. When you get to the end of Bang, there is a promotion for Day Bang. When you get to the end of Day Bang, there is a promotion for Bang. If someone finished my book, they probably liked it and will be willing to read another one of my books. Sales beget more sales.

14. Stay on top of self-publishing trends. For hundreds of years, bookselling was the same. You put the book on paper and it landed in a bookstore. Things are changing so fast that how I sell books now is completely different than just three years ago. PDF used to be the gold standard, but now I include EPUB and MOBI formats in all my direct sales. Paperback used to account for 100% of my sales, but now it’s less than 33%. Thankfully today there are sites like 99 Designs and Elance to hire contractors to help us, along with informative blogs like Joe Konrath and Self Publishing Review.

15. People buy you just as much as the book. Most of the sales from one of my recent books, Bang Poland, went to guys who will probably never step foot in Poland. So why are they buying it? Because they like my work and want to support it. I can open Microsoft Word, take a dump on my keyboard, and call it Bang Your Mom and it will have sales because people trust what I’m doing. This increases your responsibility as a writer because the last thing you want to do is make people feel like they are paying more for less.

16. Information products are still king. Even though I love my memoir A Dead Bat In Paraguay, it gets demolished in sales by Bang and Day Bang. The reason is that people want something that directly benefits them. Plus it’s easier to sell an info product—just list how it will help a person’s life. It’s much tougher to sell fiction and memoirs.

17. Say thank you. Times are tough and that ten bucks that someone just gave you could have gone somewhere else. Don’t take your readers’ support for granted, and even if it sounds trite, say thanks. You can even use smiley faces.

Article Marketing Tips: 7 Writing Tips for Beginners

When you’re just starting to distribute articles to market your website, it can be a little intimidating because most likely you’re not used to writing articles on a regular basis. Being a beginner isn’t a bad thing – in fact, it’s the perfect time to establish some excellent writing habits.
This article offers you 7 article marketing tips that are especially helpful for beginners, and you can take any combination of these tips and use them to create your own writing strategy.

1 – Don’t Try to Write an Article in One Sitting
Writing takes time, and there are different stages to it. In the first stage you’ll be jotting down ideas you want to include in your article. In the next stage, you start to write in complete sentences and paragraphs. The next step is the editing stage, and after that is the proofreading stage. Writing takes such mental effort that it would be very hard for you to do all of these stages in one day. Most experienced writers will spread their work out over several days. That way they can approach their article with a fresh mind several times, which produces a higher quality article.

2 – Write Early in the Morning
It’s an interesting fact that many serious writers prefer to work in the early morning hours when their minds are most alert (after a cup of coffee!) and when their working conditions are the most quiet. You may also find that it is easiest to write first thing in the morning, but it never hurts to experiment!

3 – Create a Mini-Ritual That You do Before You Write
This is a little trick that many professional writers use. Come up with some simple activities that you always do prior to sitting down to write. These activities could be as simple as having a cup of coffee while reading the newspaper (that works particularly well if you’re writing first thing in the morning). The mini-ritual helps your mind transition to the task of writing.

4 – Write in a Distraction Free Location
It’s just common sense that it’s easiest to write when you have the fewest distractions. Distractions can come from people, technology (such as email, phone, or the internet), environmental noise, or maybe even something as innocent as a window with a beautiful view.

5 – Prepare Your Topic and Research the Day Before
The hardest part of writing an article is coming up with the topic. When you’re writing articles for article marketing, your topic will always have something to do with the general topic of your website. Still, that leaves a lot of options. That’s why it’s best for you to sit down the day before and pinpoint what topic you’ll write about. Then, when the time comes for your writing session, you can just sit down and start writing.

The same goes for doing research – if you do need to look anything up or gather any information, do it the day before so you don’t get sidetracked during your writing session. Your writing session is just for writing.

6 – Write for a Limited Amount of Time
It’s easy to procrastinate when you know you have some articles to write. Setting a time limit on your writing session can help eliminate some anxiety (you know that there is an end in sight!). It may also help you write more efficiently, as oftentimes setting a time limit can help you focus and motivate you to think and write more quickly.

7 – Make It a Habit to Write with a More Structured Approach, Using These Tips as Your Guide
One of the most positive habits that a beginner can adopt is to have a structured writing routine. You’ll find that it’s easier for you to get started writing and that you don’t overtax your mind trying to do too much at one time.

These are simple tips that any beginner can use to emulate writers who have more experience. By using these tips, you will write more efficiently and improve in your writing skill.

20 Synonyms for “Expert”

Just as the many synonyms for beginner should be picked over with care to capture the correct connotation, the numerous alternatives available for referring to an expert have sometimes unique or specific senses appropriate for some contexts and unsuitable for others. Here’s a usage guide to such words:

1. Ace (ultimately derived from the Latin word as, “one,” “unit”): Originally, a combat pilot with at least five (later, ten) confirmed kills, or enemy planes shot down, and by extension a highly skilled person. The slang designation stems from the most valuable card in a deck and far predates powered flight; it was used to denote excellence, and eventually “top of the deck” athletes were so designated. The term is still employed in sports, as in gaining a point on a serve in tennis or hitting a hole in one in golf, as well as in the scholastic sense of performing well in a course or on a test.

2. Adept (from the Latin word adeptus, “having reached, attained”): Usually has the connotation of a mystical or secret pursuit or body of knowledge; this sense stems from the use of the term in Middle English to refer to an alchemist, and the term is widely used in heroic-fantasy literature featuring wizards and sorcerers and in writing about mysticism, though it is appropriate for general usage.

3-4. Artist (ultimately from the Latin word ars): Originally referred solely to a practitioner of art, but now often applied to someone who demonstrates skill with an artistic flourish in any pursuit. The French form, artiste, is used only facetiously or by or in reference to the pretentious.

5. Authority (from the Latin word auctoritatem, “advice, opinion”): Connotes the go-to source for, well, authoritative information or advice, or the governing agency or institution for a body of knowledge. As you may have guessed, the Latin term from which this word derives is also the source of author.

6-7. Connoisseur (from the Latin word cognoscere, “to know”): Usually employed in gustatory or artistic contexts, identifying someone with a refined taste in wine, for example, or a specific school of painting. The term, which comes to English from French, has an Italian cognate, cognoscente, which, when borrowed into English, has the same sense or that of “one in the know.” (The plural is cognoscenti.)

8-9. Doyen (from the Middle French word meaning “leader of ten,” stemming from the Latin term decanus, and ultimately from the Greek term dekanos, both with the same meaning): Carries a connotation similar to that of connoisseur or maven, of a person with knowledge about or skill in a rarified topic or area. Dean, sometimes used to denote an expert in or master of a specific field as well as in its academic sense, derives from doyen.

10. Guru (from the Hindi word for “teacher” or “priest,” from the Sanskrit term guru-s): Originally denoted a spiritual mentor, but the meaning was later extended to a secular sense and then generally to an expert.

11. Hotshot: Originally referred to a headstrong person or a headlong object; it now is usually employed in the sarcastically derogatory sense of someone who considers themselves more knowledgeable or capable than they are.

12. Initiate (from the Latin word initium, “beginning”): Originally, this word identified one who had undergone or was about to undergo an initiation ceremony, but now it is also a designation for one privy to certain knowledge or skills.

13-14. Maestro (from the Italian word for “master,” ultimately from the Latin term magister): A term for a gifted composer, later extended to orchestra conductors and now sometimes used facetiously to refer to those with pretensions of genius. The English form master denotes both an academic leader (hence “master of arts” and so on) and one who is eminent in any given field of endeavor.

15. Maven (from the Yiddish word, meyvn, “one who understands,” ultimately from the Hebrew term mebhin): Generally used in the sense of someone with expertise in a sophisticated area of study or skill.

16. Pundit (from the Hindi payndita, “learned man,” ultimately from Sanskrit payndita-s): Usually employed to refer to commentators, analysts, or consultants, often with a negative sense because of the widespread realization that one can find “experts” who will support or attack any position one favors or opposes.

17. Scholar (from the Latin word schola, “school,” ultimately from the Greek term skhole): Originally, referred to a student, but now, except in formal or jocular contexts, denotes an academician.

18. Virtuoso (from the noun form of the Italian word meaning “skilled, learned,” from the Latin term virtuosus, “virtuous”): Originally applied to highly talented musicians, but now appropriated in many other contexts to refer to manual or mental dexterity.

19-20. Wizard (from Middle English wys, “wise,” and -ard, “one who [is]”): The supposedly traditional connotation, that of a person with magical powers, supplanted the original meaning of “wise man,” and the modern sense, outside of fantasy-literature and computer-gaming circles, is of someone astonishingly good at a certain endeavor. Whiz is either a short form of wizard or a variant of the onomatopoeic whizz, “humming, hissing sound or movement.”