Skip to main content

Writing Advice: Vocabulary

Your vocabulary should be your own, but it should spiced up if your story doesn't have much flavor. The English Language is a beautiful thing, full of possibilities for describing the exact same situation in completely different ways.

It is important to have a flow of relatively interesting words, as otherwise the reader may become bored. This does not mean you should not overcomplicate the narrative, the words are drawn from the story, they should not become too restrictive towards your readership. It is also important to observe tone. The genre and perspective from which the story is told, will both be tips as to how fancy you should get with your descriptions and narration. A hard-boiled detective will have a different vocabulary than the sole survivor of an interstellar expedition.

As well, the language you use should add, not detract from the emotional disposition which you are attempting to evoke. If you become too bogged down in complex language, then you will find heartbreaking situations may have less of an impact.


On the flip side of this, plain language will prove inefficient at getting across vast or even abstract concepts. Where plain language fails, complex words should be employed, and vice versa.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Borrasca by C. K. Walker (Bourasca? Borraskwa?! ¿¿Boruscka??)

Novel: Thriller, horror. Contains violence and disturbing imagery.  Warning: This review contains minor spoilers.             Do you like tragic thrillers, bordering on horror? Stories which seem like they originate from the pits of humanity which we do not understand and do not wish to? Small towns with big secrets? Twists that you know are coming from a mile away, but find yourself too surrounded by fog to know the nature of this twist until it is footsteps are right upon you and your heart is tearing to get out of your rib cage???             If any of these apply to you (or god forbid, them all), then Borrasca may just be the book for you.             The book starts out with the old “I’m moving to a small town because of my dad/mom’s new job. Of course, in this book, the change of job is a lot more...
Post a Comment
Read more

“Who Could That Be At This Hour?” By Lemony Snicket, in which Lemony sneaks around at too late of an hour

BE ADVISED! Along with containing minor spoilers, this review will be less about the book itself and more about the series of All The Wrong Questions and what it accomplishes and what it fails.  When I was around twelve or thirteen I first picked up “Who could that be at this hour?” It instantly captured my imagination with its air of intrigue and fascinating, semi-surreal setting. I grew up with the previous serious in the Lemony Snicketverse, “A Series of Unfortunate Events” and I hadn’t yet discovered my love of noir films so many of the tropes at play were initially lost on me. Looking back, older and more mature, I can see the seams. Already in the first book of a series of four, I can see the moments where the story lags. Having read all four books, I can see that while Handler is a master of delivering a powerful and clever satire, he doesn’t know how to break his own routines. It’s less noticeable in the first book than it is in later entries, but we are alrea...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: Freakonomics by Stephen J. Dubner and Steven Levitt – In which Economics prove to be cooler than Algebra

Novel: Nonfiction THE CHARACTERIZATION. WAS. INCREDIBLE. I jest of course, as this book contains no characters and really isn’t like any books I have previously reviewed. This will make it difficult to review it, as in the end, the purchase really just depends on whether you would buy and read a book SIMPLY to know some interesting facts and get a slightly skewed perspective. Levitt says at the end, that he knows the book won’t make a big difference. It might make you treat a few people in certain jobs differently, it might make you distrust common knowledge more often. But other than that, I can scarcely say that the book will leave an emotional impact on you. It’s not necessarily boring so much as…not engaging. Let me start from the beginning. The book was written by Steven Levitt, an economist, and Stephen Dubner, a writer. Levitt is apparently something of a wild card in the economist biz, as he comes to conclusions which disturb many, and enjoys looking in...
2 comments
Read more