Words are the way to your reader’s heart
How much time do you spend thinking about the words you use in your writing? Do you use large words, forcing many readers to dust off the ‘ol family dictionary? Or do you prefer "everyday" language that even the common folk can understand?
If you’re a writer, or you want to be one, and you don’t give much thought to the words you use, then you should start now. Hopefully this post can at least get you started thinking about such things. And by employing a few simple strategies, your writing will become that much more appreciated by your readers.
Know your audience
This is perhaps the most important rule in writing. Are you writing for a scraggly old professor, or for science fiction addicts with a penchant for techno-babble? By knowing who your audience is (your primary reader), you can adjust your diction accordingly. Writing for business is much different than fiction. And writing fiction is much different than writing essays, which is also different than business. You see where I’m going with this?
Should I use big words?
Again, it all boils down to who your audience is. Let’s pretend you’re writing a novel and one of the professors is a professor of early British literature (this also happens to have been my concentration in college). How would you expect him/her to talk? Would this professor use words like "ain’t" and "damnit". Probably not. On the other hand, would an uneducated character from a small mountain town says: "I’m going to take my morning constitutional now." Again, probably not.
The words a character uses, and the words you use to describe a character can make or break them. One blogger who writes about fiction writing had this to say:
Vocabulary poses other issues for fiction writers. Our choice of words can make a character or setting sound absolutely believable, or absolutely false. Orwell’s Newspeak is supposed to suppress conscious thought in its users; it stirs us to higher consciousness of the Newspeak in our regular media.
So, in addition to knowing your audience, you also must use the appropriate words for characterization and setting. Sounds like a lot of pressure, right? Yes, it is. But, if you do a lot of reading, then you should get a feel for what works and what doesn’t. You are reading a lot, aren’t you?
Mix it up
A strategy I often employ in my own fiction is mixing it up. For some descriptive scenes that need to be a little more elegant, I might employ a more sophisticated lexicon that will give the reader this feel of elegance. But I’ll also use plain, everyday language (this is my "default" word setting). By mixing it up, you’re not trying to highbrow your readers and show them you think you’re smarter than they are. Nor are you trying to "dumb" your writing down and make your readers feel like first graders listening to story time.
Some of the most enjoyable works of fiction I have read employ this strategy of mixing up the word usage. In fact, right now I’m just about finished reading The Corrections, by Jonathan Franzen. Last night, while propped up in bed, reading with my itty-bitty book light, I came across this passage that immediately caught my attention:
Denise still couldn’t say no to the drug of Robin. She still wanted Robin’s hands on her and at her and around her and inside her, that prepositional smorgasbord.
Eroticism of the passage aside, much of the passage is in ordinary language that most people can understand. However, then you get to those last two words "prepositional smorgasbord" and you have to stop reading for a minute to ponder the meaning of such a phrase. Of course, the sentence is dripping with prepositions (I counted 4, by the way). But then Franzen throws in a word mostly associated with eating lots of food. This appeals to the passage’s "hunger" of physical satisfaction that Franzen is trying to portray – and does a mighty good job of it.
In conclusion…
Thus, I hope you see th importance of picking your words carefully. The words you use can either draw your readers into the world of your writing, or your words can boot them out like an angry landlord (oooh, that was bad!). As a writer, you should be obsessed with words. You should be elbow deep in words every day of the week. Words, words, words.
Hey, don’t forget to check out the Writing Fiction blog that I quoted:
The Words Writers Use
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