Fun With Words
Authors play with words. English is a great language to do this in. Original English has absorbed vocabulary from so many other languages to become rich.
Most people don't make use of this richness. Unfortunately some of these people are authors.
I read somewhere that, when doing dialog, use said every time. How boring. How tragic when using a synonym can create character, mood and plot supports. A person can state, whisper, mumble, answer, ask, gripe and so much more.
Then there is description. Describing a flower as red is so vague. Every person has a concept of red. Which one do you want to invoke? Is the flower rose red, cardinal red, fire engine red? Perhaps it is a deep purplish red.
What about a sunburn? Or a smile?
Minimalist writing may appeal to some readers. I want to see my books come alive in my head as the author saw it when writing the book. A single word can change the meaning and lift a book from boring to fascinating.
English is so rich in words. It's time we shook our reader up a little by expanding our vocabularies.
Most people don't make use of this richness. Unfortunately some of these people are authors.
I read somewhere that, when doing dialog, use said every time. How boring. How tragic when using a synonym can create character, mood and plot supports. A person can state, whisper, mumble, answer, ask, gripe and so much more.
Then there is description. Describing a flower as red is so vague. Every person has a concept of red. Which one do you want to invoke? Is the flower rose red, cardinal red, fire engine red? Perhaps it is a deep purplish red.
What about a sunburn? Or a smile?
Minimalist writing may appeal to some readers. I want to see my books come alive in my head as the author saw it when writing the book. A single word can change the meaning and lift a book from boring to fascinating.
English is so rich in words. It's time we shook our reader up a little by expanding our vocabularies.
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