Onomatopoeias or Toilet Fizzies

 This weekend I became slightly obsessed with Toilet Fizzies. 'KDANG!' I hear you think, Angela is now officially losing the plot. Too long in isolation maybe? Who in their right mind writes about TOILET FIZZIES????

Sush- I'm fine, trust me. Toilets are part of life. No-one likes a dirty toilet, no-one likes to clean the toilet. I personally have a strong dislike of the smell which is put into toilet cleaners, even the eco stuff. Never smells like standing in a pine forest to me, just simply like ghastly toilet cleaner. YUCK.

It started actually with bath bombs. One of the very best side effects of lock down is that I can have a bath whenever I want and how often as I want. Daytime baths are just SO luxurious. I was looking for recipes to make bath bombs with whatever I had in the cupboard.

Win win win here really. I had fun making them, I have now delicious bath bombs which smell fantastic and make your skin nice and soft and the whole house smelled beautiful while I was making them. Bonus feature: I made "Namaste" bath bombs, which are definitely of a calming, uplifting nature because my whole bubble was in a superb mood .

On my search for bath bomb recipes I came across Toilet Fizzies. Bit similar as bath bombs, minus the coconut oil. When your toilet needs cleaning, you simple dunk one in the bowl. WOOSH and FIZZ and you let it sit for a bit and TADAAAAH your toilet is sparkling clean.

Bit like those vulcanos you used to make with baking soda and vinegar. This time: play explosions take place in your toilet and are called Being Sensible and Responsible.

In writing, we use something very similar as toilet fizzies. We can use words which don't have a meaning, they are just sounds which add to the story. Often they are not even written in a sentence, they are just by themselves. BOOM! Grammatically, they actually don't make a whole lot of sense. Kind of parking your car totally illegal. Until someone brilliant came up with a name for them, which kind of made it legal to use them in your writing. And to make it unforgettable, this brilliant person named the words which aren't a word ONOMATOPOEIA.

Onomatopoeia are like toilet fizzies: if you use them too much, they lose their effect. But used at the right moment, in the right place, they add FIZZ and SPARKLE.

How many onomatopoeia did I use today?

Check your draft- where in your story would a toilet fizzie make it sparkle?

And if you're all inspired to get crafty- here's the link:

Bonus Feature

The Diary of Merlin The Dog in the Tough Times of the Leash.

I have been a tad down lately. Don't like grey skies. Don't like the wet. Cats stay indoor, so there's not much to scare on my walk. My humans are inside looking at screens. Hmpph.

I had enough. Know what? I'm going to put on my dressing gown and I'll hide until the sun comes out again. Don't disturb please until further notice.