This is the nonfiction story of one man's quest to publish a fiction novel:

My dearest darlingest wife is a reading specialist in a high school, and she told me about an interesting exercise I thought I’d share with all of you.

What words can you think of to describe a hot day?

Sweaty
Sultry
Sauna
Simmering
Searing
Humid
Heat
Burn
Blaze
Fire

What other ones can you think of?  Plenty, right?

Now, can you describe a hot day without using any of those words?

Perhaps you’ll describe a group of kids playing in the street as a fire hydrant sprays them with water.  Or a dog lying outside, panting tongue dragging across the high grass.  What about a boy leaning in to lick an ice cream cone and finding that his treat has melted almost instantly?

Would you create the idea of an image shimmering over black concrete, or have the very blackness of that tar seeming to bubble off and evaporate?  

What would you do?  You would paint a picture, you would invent a scene, you would create that all important tone: atmosphere.     

You could write, “the day was hot.”  Or you could create a whole world for your reader.

Why don’t you do that now?  In as many words as you want, craft a scene of a hot day, without using any synonyms for the word hot.  Post it as a comment. Leave your name if you’d like.  And your age.  And anything else you want to tell us about yourself.  Create your ideal hot world, and let’s see how inventive you can be.  

I can’t wait to discover what you can do.  I bet it’ll be hot.