Writers have to be wordy. Seriously. They have to have a whole convoy of words at their disposal, ready to be fired relentlessly at a hopefully-attentive audience.
They have to know antonyms for words like rude, unhappy, sociable, and be able to trot off synonyms for words like incredulous, superfluous, and irritating. They have to know the difference between homonyms like peace and piece, and know if that book goes they're, there, or their.
It can be like a treasure hunt. "What does convivial mean?" **flip, flip, flip** (or, for the more computer-minded people, **browse, browse, browse**) AHA!
Con·viv·i·al [kuhn-viv-ee-uhl]
adjective
1.friendly; agreeable: a convivial atmosphere.
2. fond of feasting, drinking, and merry company; jovial.
3. of or befitting a feast; festive.
"What does translucent mean?" **flip, flip, flip** (**browse, browse, browse**) AHA!
Trans·lu·cent [trans-loo-suhnt]
adjective
1.permitting light to pass through but diffusing it so that persons, objects, etc., on the opposite side are not clearly visible: Frosted window glass is translucent but not transparent.
2. easily understandable; lucid: a translucent explication.
3. clear; transparent: translucent seawater.
Writers have to know a lot of words. (Bonus points for anyone who can tell me offhand, without dictionary.com or Google, or any other online dictionary, thesaurus, or search engine, what the word CARRIWITCHET means. **gigglegiggle) My advice? Use a dictionary!
Showing posts with label Thesaurus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thesaurus. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Writers: Walking Thesaurus's
If you ask a writer for ways to say the same word differently, I wonder how many words with similar meanings they could give you?
One of our jobs as writers is to find that absolutely perfect word and plunk it down, a glowing jewel, amidst all the clutter of sentences. Not an "almost" perfect word. Not a "sort of" perfect word. THE perfect word.
For instance, you can't have a group of sentences with one redundant word occurring throughout the whole paragraph. It would get-- well, redundant. I mean, look at this sentence:
"The darkness lay like a bandage across my eyes. My groping hands reached through the dark, and my eyes tried to pierce through darkness' shield, but to no avail. The pressing dark was too much for me to penetrate. I lifted my foot and took a brave step forward, a blind man in the dark."
This might be a good sentence, but sheesh! Look at all those "dark"s! TOO many! You start getting hung up on how many darks are in that sentence. So, you have to be creative. What other words OTHER than dark can you substitute instead? Gloom. Black. Dim. Shadow. Murk. There's a bunch, isn't there? Let's rewrite that sentence again.
"The darkness lay like a bandage across my eyes. My groping hands reached through the shadows, and my eyes tried to pierce through the gloomy shield, but to no avail. The pressing dimness was too much for me to penetrate. I lifted my foot and took a brave step forward, a blind man in the murk."
Which one read better, one or two? See what I mean?
Writing isn't just about putting words together and hoping it's good enough. Writing is putting good words together inventively, and knowing that it's as perfect as you can make it.
One of our jobs as writers is to find that absolutely perfect word and plunk it down, a glowing jewel, amidst all the clutter of sentences. Not an "almost" perfect word. Not a "sort of" perfect word. THE perfect word.
For instance, you can't have a group of sentences with one redundant word occurring throughout the whole paragraph. It would get-- well, redundant. I mean, look at this sentence:
"The darkness lay like a bandage across my eyes. My groping hands reached through the dark, and my eyes tried to pierce through darkness' shield, but to no avail. The pressing dark was too much for me to penetrate. I lifted my foot and took a brave step forward, a blind man in the dark."
This might be a good sentence, but sheesh! Look at all those "dark"s! TOO many! You start getting hung up on how many darks are in that sentence. So, you have to be creative. What other words OTHER than dark can you substitute instead? Gloom. Black. Dim. Shadow. Murk. There's a bunch, isn't there? Let's rewrite that sentence again.
"The darkness lay like a bandage across my eyes. My groping hands reached through the shadows, and my eyes tried to pierce through the gloomy shield, but to no avail. The pressing dimness was too much for me to penetrate. I lifted my foot and took a brave step forward, a blind man in the murk."
Which one read better, one or two? See what I mean?
Writing isn't just about putting words together and hoping it's good enough. Writing is putting good words together inventively, and knowing that it's as perfect as you can make it.
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