Author's Note
Learn more about the decisions, challenges and delights in creating Elixir.
Back in 1999, I had just started working as a teacher of foreign languages, after spending a good deal of time working abroad in Turkey and Peru. Because I was spending such a long time in the company of non-native English speakers, I was getting worried that my grasp of vocabulary was slipping. So, while my housemate was playing Lara Croft or something, I opened the dictionary at random and wrote a little story using all the words on the page. The page was ELF-EMB and my story involved an elf, an elk and the elixir of life. An intriguing storyline developed and I wanted to know what would happen next, so I opened the dictionary up to another page. Before long I’d vowed to do the whole dictionary. Soon after that, my friend pointed out that opening the dictionary at random wasn’t random at all and lent me some ten sided dice. The rest is history.
What on earth made you write it?
How long did it take you to write it?
I finished the first draft in three years. It was a matchless occasion, but I knew even then that the story didn’t work as it was. By the time I got to the second half of the book, I had worked out how to manipulate the words in the dictionary to do what I wanted them to do, I knew what the plot was, I knew who my main characters were and what their personalities were like. When I started off, there was none of that. It was just a long ramble with no real direction and endless new characters. The first half had to be completely rewritten, and then most of the second half had to be done again to match the improved standards of the first half. Lots of pointless side-plots were taken out, and characters were axed in their dozens. So, back to your question, fifteen years. But I was doing other stuff during that time too. I mean I wasn’t doing just this. Heavens no. That would just make me weird.
So does it really contain every word?
Well, to answer this question, you really have to define the word ‘word’. Now hang on before you think I’m chickening out, because there were some serious decisions I had to make. Let’s look at a few.
Verbs
Verbs in English have up to five forms, (go, went, gone, goes, going) – oo, and the verb ‘to be’ has seven (am, is, are, was, were, being, been) plus its respective contractions. Are these all different words? I think yes, but it seemed a bit of a chore putting them all in, so I decided to use the verb in at least one form of my own choice. Irregular verb forms like ‘am’ and ‘be’ appeared on different pages of the dictionary anyway, so that decision was made for me.
Suffixes
Operate, operation, operability, operational, operator, operable. Different words or the same word with a different ending? I suppose, strictly speaking they are all different words, but I chose to use at least one form of the root with a suffix of my choice.
Prefixes
Load, overload, reload, unload, off-load. Logic says I should apply the same rule as I did above, but the fact is that these words all appeared on different pages of the dictionary, whereas the suffixes all appeared together, so in most cases , the same root will appear with a number of prefixes at various parts of the book. Having said that, when introducing a common prefix, the dictionary states ' Such words are not given here where meaning may easily be inferred from simple word', so some words are absent for this reason. At first, I only included the prefixed words which were listed as main entries, rather than those listed at the bottom of the dictionary page without definitions. Then, later on in the writing process I decided this was cheating and determined to use them all, which made writing chapter 333 a barrel of laughs.
Compound Nouns
Yes, you see, when is a suffix a suffix? In the Diamond dictionary, under the main entry ‘hard’ there are several derivatives. Words like ‘harden’, ‘hardship’ and ‘hardness’ are clearly suffixes and under the rule above I need not use them all. But what about ‘hardly’? Its meaning isn’t related to the idea of something being ‘hard’, and perhaps, it should have been listed as a separate entry. What about ‘hardback’? That’s not so clear, because even a non-English speaker with a knowledge of suffixes, and who knows the words ‘hard’ and ‘back’, may not connect the word ‘hardback’ to a type of book binding. What about ‘hard-boiled?’ If it’s hyphenated is it two words or one? If it’s two words, I needn’t therefore use the term, but then ‘hard-pressed’ doesn’t literally mean ‘being pressed down hard’ – so is ‘hard-pressed’ one word or two? What about ‘hard palate’ which is clearly two words but refers to one specific thing? The decision I made was to leave out all compound words which were made of two or more unhyphenated words. Other compound words I decided upon individually. If the derivative clearly represented a different object whose meaning would not be clear to a non-native speaker with a good understanding of suffixes, I included it in the book.
Homographs
When is a fair not a fair? Yes, what to do with those words that look the same? Is it correct to say ‘it’s the same word but a different meaning’? If so, then I need only use one. Or, is it ‘a different word with the same spelling’? Arrggghh!
But let’s look at it another way. According to Diamond Dictionary, the word ‘horror’ has three meanings. 1. terror 2. loathing, fear 3. its cause. So am I expected to use ‘horror’ three times? No, I don’t think so. So I used the same reasoning for homographs like ‘fair’. Maybe that’s cheating, but if you don’t like it, what you gonna do?
Proper Nouns and Acronyms
I followed the Scrabble and Countdown ruling of leaving these out, but sometimes they fitted into the chapter nicely so I put them in.
Which was the most difficult letter?
Not Z or X, as you might think. The X page has refreshingly few entries, and most of those are to do with wood. Words beginning with Z are actually pretty great. Q was awkward, but no worse than any other letter really. The worst pages were the ones with endless identical prefixes: super/supra-, hydro-, hyper/hypo-, inter- and poly- (on the third chapter too, just when I’m trying to suck people in. Not fun). My favourite letters were F and J. There’s a lot of fun to be had at those parts of the alphabet.