Thesaurus
by Nic Olson
I use a Thesaurus quite often in my writing. I don’t know if that is considered cheating, like a musician constantly referring to chords from other musicians to write new music, or like a carpenter constantly borrowing tools from his coworker, or like a stripper always borrowing her friend’s best pole move. But I do it anyways. I do it because I don’t think I’m naturally a writer, so I use words repetitively like ‘constantly’, ‘beautiful’, ‘terrible’, and ‘things’. This word, ‘things’, is probably my downfall as a human being. I catch myself using this word when I write and can’t come up with a good noun for what I’m talking about. Things like that drive me crazy. I could use that word every sentence with ease, and it tears me up. I use it without even noticing it.
I try to change things up every now and then. I would like a Thesaurus for everyday living. Like a Chicken Noodle Soul book, but of actual, practical ideas and thoughts that would benefit people in real life, not in a hokey inspired-daily-reading life. Right now I wish I could take a life Thesaurus and find the antonym for cynical and hopeless, and place them in the paragraph of my past month. And don’t try to tell me there already is a piece of literature that can accomplish this, because the last time I checked, every book ever written is either deplorable (thesaurus citation) fiction or over opinionated non-fiction.
Whatever the antonyms for those words would be, it would help me rebound since my formal letter of life resignation. Because I still see things that I want to do, things that need to be done, but I have no motivation because I have no confidence in the human species. And I can’t see confidence gaining anytime soon without a sort of enlightenment, addictive chemical intake or severe memory loss. A thesaurus may be the only way out. A simple switch of attitudes and words to put myself back on that high road to success and off this realistic basement dwelling low.
Synonyms for ‘things’: affair, circumstance, item, everything
Antonyms for ‘cynical’: believing, hopeful, optimistic, trusting, undoubting
Antonyms for ‘hopeless’: auspicious, encouraging, expectant, promising, rosy
I could do that.
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ballsofrice.com 
i don't have any one piece of advice for you that will be of any help i'm sure but i will say that i understand what you speak of.i have a feeling your worldly travels have been the root of a lot of these feelings of hopelessness and cynicism. for myself i know i have not been the same person since i returned from a developing country. i feel lost, i see life as less precious, i am less kind about what i say and what i feel, i am condescending to people who's materialistic ways i abhor and i am so very bitter about so many 'things'. Now that i have careers where i work very closely with people who are having babies and getting married and then who go on to live in their little bubble of a world and i find myself resenting them, it makes me wonder if i will ever be able to feel 'normal' again. i use normal loosely. i don't think normal actually exists.but at the same time i think that to have a conscience and to be aware of what is going on in the world is something of a gift. i would not trade my enlightenment (and corresponding cynicism) for anything because i think that we are a rare breed Nic. I think it takes a lot to have seen something that probably 95% of north americans will never see in their lifetime and to allow it to change you, to acknowledge it. instead of just carrying on and pretending that what you have seen and where you have been has no implications for your selfish life. like so many people do on a daily basis.i also understand that journeying has the potential to make you want to be even more selfish and to lose hope all together for the human race ever giving a shit about one another….and i have been there too. and am still there somedays.clearly i have no answers.but i read recently that one of the most powerful phrases in the english language is 'me too'…meaning that even though my gibber-jabber here has taken me off course, what i mean to say is that i suffer from a similar affliction to yours and i do not know how to cure it. and in that, perhaps you will find some comfort.a thesaurus is another good start. but i'm not sure i like 'rosy'
stay cynical.e.
I have a physical thesaurus on my desk at home, and several thesaurus research sites book marked on my laptop's favorites. I see nothing wrong with using one, because I've noticed that many writers tend to have what I call a "favorite word" (or words). Stephenie Myer, for example, loves the word "Chagrin", and Dean Koontz is a big fan of "sluiced". Sometimes, especially when you're writing a novel, or something with quite a bit of length to it, it becomes hard to think creatively about the story and your word choice at the same time.I don't think its "cheating". Sometimes, my brain knows the word I want to use, but it just can't remember what it's called, its on the tip of my mental tongue, as it were. A Thesaurus often helps jumpstart my brain.Plus, it sounds like a dinosaur.