by Ben Blatt
“Molecules,” she said.
He nodded.
And this exchange from Lost Light:
“White guys?”
I nodded.
“Damn. That was good.”
I nodded again.
“So what’s under the tablecloth, Harry?”
I shrugged.
“First time you’ve come around in eight months, I suppose you know.”
She nodded.
“Yeah.”
“Let me guess. Alexander Taylor’s tight with the chief or the mayor or both and he called to check me out.”
She nodded. I had gotten it right.
I’ve come to think of words like this, which make their way into heavy rotation for particular authors, as their “fallback” words. They’re favorites that go beyond rarity and become common for that author, almost as if they’re a part of the way that author thinks and operates.
We all have our favorites and our fallbacks, our cinnamon words and our nod words. I was curious: What do the numbers tell us about other authors’ favorite and fallback words? I decided to make a loose set of rules to pinpoint these two categories, and at the end of the chapter I’ve scored the most extreme peculiarities for dozens of famous authors.
First, to find their favorites, their “cinnamon words,” I’ve used the following set of requirements:
• It must be used be in half an author’s books.
• It must be used at a rate of at least once per 100,000 words throughout an author’s books.
• It must not be so obscure that it’s used less than once per million in the Corpus of Historical American English.
• It is not a proper noun.
For each author, I found all words that passed the rules above and then homed in on the three that have the highest usage rate compared to the Corpus of Historical American English. These are the “cinnamon words,” an approximation of their favorites.
For example, consider the list that we find when we look at Vladimir Nabokov’s work. The Lolita author’s favorite—his number one “cinnamon word,” used at least once in all of his eight books—is mauve. In total, he used it at a rate 44 times more common than the word is used in the Corpus of Historical American English. No other word in Nabokov’s work shows such a big difference when compared to ordinary writing.
And it makes perfect sense that a color, such as mauve, would be one of Nabokov’s “cinnamon words.” He was known to have synesthesia. Or, as he describes, with plenty of detail and color (including mauve), in his autobiography Speak, Memory:
At times, however, my photisms take on a rather soothing flou quality, and then I see—projected, as it were, upon the inside of the eyelid—gray figures walking between beehives, or small black parrots gradually vanishing among mountain snows, or a mauve remoteness melting beyond moving masts.
On top of all this I present a fine case of colored hearing. Perhaps “hearing” is not quite accurate, since the color sensation seems to be produced by the very act of my orally forming a given letter while I imagine its outline. The long a of the English alphabet (and it is this alphabet I have in mind farther on unless otherwise stated) has for me the tint of weathered wood, but a French a evokes polished ebony.
Given the unique way Nabokov described his thoughts, it seems as if the “cinnamon word” method was able to succeed in landing upon a word that was unique to him. His love of mauve is extraordinary, but he uses all colors more than other writers as well. If you use the 64 standard Crayola Crayon names as a definitive list of colors, Vladimir Nabokov uses around 460 color words per 100,000, which is remarkably high. The same colors appear just 115 times per 100,000 in the Corpus of Historical American English.
Not everyone’s “cinnamon words” may be as telling as Nabokov’s, and the method isn’t perfect. For a number of authors, the words reflect the unique tone of a book or subject matter. Jane Austen’s top three are civility, fancying, and imprudence, while Agatha Christie’s are inquest, alibi, and frightful. For authors like J. K. Rowling, where I chose to include just the one series for which she is best known, the words are representative of that universe itself rather than any words representing a likely favorite. The top three “cinnamon words” for the Potter series are wand, wizard, and potion. For Fifty Shades they’re murmurs, hmm, and subconscious. And for Patterson’s Alex Cross books we get killers, murders, and kidnapping—which could function well as a tagline.
I’ve also developed a set of rules for finding each author’s fallbacks, their “nod” words, which an author uses over and over again to the point where it gets noticeable. I’ve defined a “nod” word by the following requirements:
• It must be in all of an author’s books.
• It must be used at a rate of at least 100 per 100,000 words throughout an author’s books.
• It must not be so obscure that it’s used less than once per million in the Corpus of Historical American English.
• It is not a proper noun.
The top three “nod” words were then calculated in the same way, by comparing usage rates to the Corpus of Historical American English. These words too are sometimes taken over by subject and setting (Suzanne Collins’s fallback words of the Hunger Games series include district and games), and they tend to be drier, blander words. But they can also be revealing of the inner mechanics of certain authors’ writing—the devices and tics they tend to fall back on to keep the plot moving or to get from one scene to the next. Gaiman fills the gaps with walking; Cheever’s reality is shifting, focusing on how things seem; Stine’s Goosebumps books are filled with staring and crying; some authors focus on feel, others on want.
Following is a chart of the top three “cinnamon words” and top three “nod words” for each of the fifty authors I’ve been using as examples throughout this book. To add to the fun, I’ve also included fifty more authors of popular and critical acclaim. Most authors’ words don’t reveal a deep truth—though a good number offer brief glimpses of how these authors work and think compared to one another.
AUTHOR
WORKS
CINNAMON WORDS
NOD WORDS
Chinua Achebe
5 Novels
kinsmen, abomination, compound
girls, room, likes
Douglas Adams
7 Novels
prefect, galactic, spaceship
yes, said, just
Mitch Albom
6 Books
exhaled, hmm, mumbled
phone, felt, asked
Isaac Asimov
7 Foundation Series Books
galactic, terminus, councilman
second, said, yes
Jean Auel
6 Earth’s Children Books
totem, clan, steppes
clan, cave, wolf
Jane Austen
6 Novels
civility, fancying, imprudence
herself, dear, lady
David Baldacci
29 Novels
web, laptop, limo
looked, really, back
Enid Blyton
21 Famous Five Books
woof, hallo, larder
dog, round, said
Ray Bradbury
11 Novels
icebox, dammit, exhaled
someone, cried, boys
Ann Brashares
9 Novels
smock, bee, dorm
maybe, felt, herself
Charlotte Brontë
4 Novels
tradesman, gig, lineaments
my, am, me
Dan Brown
4 Robert Langdon Books
grail, masonic, pyramid
felt, toward, looked
Truman Capote
5 Novels
clutter, zoo, geranium
though, liked, seemed
Willa Cather
14 Novels
cottonwood, hearted, lilac
went, always, looked
&nbs
p; Michael Chabon
7 Novels
nostalgia, boardwalk, fucked
black, around, said
John Cheever
5 Novels
infirmary, venereal, erotic
seemed, went, asked
Agatha Christie
66 Novels
inquest, alibi, frightful
yes, quite, really
Tom Clancy
13 Novels
ding, politburo, briefed
sir, asked, something
Cassandra Clare
9 Novels
inquisitor, vampire, demons
blood, hair, looked
Suzanne Collins
3 Hunger Games Books
tributes, tracker, victors
district, games, says
Michael Connelly
27 Novels
freeway, homicide, laptop
nodded, phone, car
Joseph Conrad
14 Novels
immobility, poop, skylight
seemed, voice, head
Michael Crichton
24 Novels
dinosaur, sensors, syringe
said, yes, looked
Clive Cussler
23 Dirk Pitt Novels
underwater, hangar, artifact
ship, sea, water
James Dashner
3 Maze Runner Novels
cranks, glade, flare
finally, maybe, felt
Don DeLillo
15 Novels
tempo, era, carton
off, said, come
Charles Dickens
20 Novels
hearted, pinch, rejoined
sir, dear, am
Theodore Dreiser
8 Novels
genially, franchises, subtlety
anything, oh, might
Jennifer Egan
4 Novels
blah, backpack, glimpsed
felt, looked, eyes
Dave Eggers
6 Novels
kayak, watchers, laptop
wanted, hand, knew
Jeffrey Eugenides
3 Novels
manic, backseat, lifeboat
girls, room, like
Janet Evanovich
40 Novels
stun, backseat, doughnut
car, lot, maybe
William Faulkner
19 Novels
hollering, realized, immobile
maybe, even, already
Joshua Ferris
3 Novels
website, totem, convoy
office, asked, wanted
F. Scott Fitzgerald
4 Novels
facetious, muddled, sanitarium
oh, seemed, night
Ian Fleming
12 James Bond Novels
lavatory, trouser, spangled
round, across, girl
Gillian Flynn
3 Novels
runner, fucked, pissed
hair, girl, really
E. M. Forster
6 Novels
muddle, hullo, tram
oh, yes, she
Jonathan Franzen
4 Novels
buzz, carpeting, earthquakes
want, she, her
Charles Frazier
3 Novels
poplar, forearms, cove
fire, dark, ground
William Gaddis
5 Novels
crease, suing, damned
damn, mean, wait
Neil Gaiman
7 Novels
unimpressed, coats, glinted
walked, door, said
Mark Greaney
6 Novels
gentry, hightower, backpack
court, front, behind
John Green
4 Novels
radar, prom, pee
yeah, maybe, really
John Grisham
28 Novels
paperwork, courtroom, juror
office, asked, money
Dashiell Hammett
5 Novels
coppers, taxicab, sidewise
asked, anything, got
Nathaniel Hawthorne
6 Novels
subtile, betwixt, remoteness
heart, seemed, might
Ernest Hemingway
10 Novels
concierge, astern, cognac
said, big, asked
Khaled Hosseini
3 Novels
kites, backseat, orphanage
father, eyes, around
E L James
3 Fifty Shades Books
murmurs, hmm, subconscious
murmurs, fingers, mouth
Henry James
20 Novels
recognise, oddity, afresh
herself, mean, moment
Edward P. Jones
3 Novels
coop, heh, icebox
street, woman, children
James Joyce
3 Novels
tram, bello, hee
old, your, his
Stephen King
51 Novels
goddam, blah, fucking
looked, back, around
Rudyard Kipling
3 Novels
job, hove, camel
thee, till, work
D. H. Lawrence
12 Novels
tram, realized, sheaves
round, dark, sat
Elmore Leonard
45 Novels
fucking, shit, bullshit
saying, looking, said
Ira Levin
7 Novels
foyer, snowflakes, carton
smiled, said, looked
C. S. Lewis
7 Narnia Books
dwarfs, witch, lion
lion, king, round
Sinclair Lewis
19 Novels
golly, heh, darn
oh, room, going
Jack London
20 Novels
snarl, daylight, bristled
knew, head, eyes
Lois Lowry
4 Giver Books
nurturing, mentor, seer
nodded, felt, told
George R. R. Martin
8 Novels
dragons, cloaks, unsullied
lady, red, black
Cormac McCarthy
10 Novels
yessir, mam, upriver
horses, watched, road
Ian McEwan
13 Novels
lavatory, forwards, fridge
room, hand, took
Richelle Mead
23 Novels
guardians, vampire, dorm
really, wanted, me
Herman Melville
9 Novels
whale, forecastle, sperm
sea, upon, though
Stephenie Meyer
4 Twilight Books
vampire, grimaced, flinched
voice, my, eyes
David Mitchell
6 Novels
mam, dint, piss
my, says, your
Toni Morrison
10 Novels
messed, navel, slop
she, women, her
Vladimir Nabokov
8 Novels
mauve, banal, pun
black, my, old
George Orwell
6 Novels
beastly, quid, workhouse
round, kind, money
Chuck Palahniuk
14 Novels
fingernail, backseat, orgasm
says, inside, dead
James Patterson
22 Alex Cross Novels
killers, murders, kidnapping
maybe, asked, right
Jodi Picoult
21 Novels
courtroom, diaper, diner
says, my, going
Thomas Pynchon
8 Novels
reef, someplace, deuce
here, around, back
Ayn Ran
d
3 Novels
transcontinental, comrade, proletarian
stood, felt, voice
Rick Riordan
5 Percy Jackson Novels
campers, titans, monsters
camp, looked, half
Marilynne Robinson
4 Novels
soapy, checkers, baptized
laughed, father, child
Veronica Roth
3 Divergent Books
simulation, serum, faction
says, gun, walk
J. K. Rowling
7 Harry Potter Books
wand, wizard, potion
wand, lit, professor
Salman Rushdie
9 Novels
flapping, eagle, whores
love, her, too
Alice Sebold
3 Novels
dorm, rape, virginity
inside, father, my
Zadie Smith
4 Novels
fag, nah, backside
really, just, oh
Lemony Snicket
13 Unfortunate Events Books
siblings, orphans, squalor
siblings, orphans, children
Nicholas Sparks
18 Novels
peeked, owed, adrenaline
final, wanted, real
John Steinbeck
19 Novels
inspected, squatted, rabbits
got, looked, said
R.L. Stine
62 Goosebumps Books
sneakers, whoa, creepy
backpack, stared, cried
Amy Tan
6 Novels
gourd, peanut, noodles
my, told, saw
Donna Tartt
3 Novels
rimmed, dial, gum
looking, around, said
J. R. R. Tolkien
LOTR and The Hobbit