Thursday 12 April 2012

K is for Knack

K

The letter K was causing me problems in my mild A-Z planning, but this is where I've ended up.  

Collins English Dictionary offers these definitions:

1. a skilful, ingenious, or resourceful way of doing something
2. a particular talent or aptitude, esp an intuitive one

Knack covers positive and negative, which is always useful in a word.  My knack for baking cake is matched by my knack for rolling bad dice.

I've also found giving NPCs a knack or two an easy way to bring them to life.  A physical description is all very well, but I run out of hair colours and voices long before I run out of interesting knacks.  Meeting up with that strawberry blonde bar wench is fine, but give her a knack for being always in the right place to overhear what she shouldn't and a mean line in home-brewing and you have a story in the making.

Knacks.  I'm a fan.

Study for the Bar at the Folie Bergere by Edward Manet


9 comments:

  1. Officially a fan, too.

    Though now married to an honest-to-God saint and all-around helluva great guy, I think I have historically had a knack for scraping up the nearest emotionally unavailable passive-aggressive man within a 500-mile radius. And for brewing a mean pot of coffee.

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    1. That sounds extremely familiar. My record was appalling before meeting up with the bona fide good egg I married. Lame dogs didn't begin to describe it. Yes to the coffee as well.

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    2. We paid our dues -- and now we are being rewarded. What was that about only so many good rolls to the dice ... ?

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    3. I reckon I spent most of my early romantic life rolling 1s, that's for sure.

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  2. Knack: Also a band who had a one hit wonder with "My Sharona".

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  3. I have the knack for choosing good blogs to read.

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    Replies
    1. I seem to have been very fortunate in that respect as well. Found a ton of good things via A-Z.

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  4. I never thought to call them knacks, but that's what I'll be calling them from now on.

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