stonewall

A writer has to love words. I have developed an abridged list of adj, nouns, verbs and adv. When I've edited the MS five times and the words are intimate, I go through my word lists looking for more descriptive and stronger words to substitute for existing ones. It also allow the writer to improve his vocabulary.

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AdamR

Very true, yet, very chalanging at times. You want to use vivid words in your descriptions, but not too 'high end' words that the audience of your writing will not understand.

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Ceridwen

I did post something about choosing the right words, and maybe it can be a bit relevant in here. I also do those things: writing down adj., adv., even nouns, and verbs! I'm sort of a beginner in writing and I'm trying my best to write right and accurately, so I keep a list of my vocabulary to serve as a guide in tough descriptions and portrayals. But sometimes, I just depend on my stock knowledge rather than flipping on the pages of my enlisted vocabulary. But either of these are harmless to do...for my OWN opinion, so it's better to recieve lots and lots of suggestions and advices to ensure a 100% skill-development.

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Pawn

I suggest in investing in the best thesaurus and dictionary you can buy. Mine is collosal and is completely invaluable to me. Personally, if a reader doesn't understand a word it's their own damn fault. A good vocabulary is great, but of course it's not the hammer that counts, but what you bash with it.

Word of the week: Triumvirate

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klaus

I like your "hammer" metaphor!
I wonder how many of people here are non-native speakers of English.
As my mother tongue is not English, I guess I have got a second-hand hammer But I am gonna find a whole lotta things to bash with.

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Spudley

True enough to a certain extent, but by the same token, the reader should be able to grasp a word's meaning by the context it's used in. If you're using unusual words, it does help to write them into your text in a way that people don't have to reach for the dictionary every other line.


(ps - word of the week: Victualler)

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Pawn

Indeed. Personally I like it when I find a word which I don't understand. Achedemic learning is the easiest form of personal enrichment.

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gabriella

I like learning new words.

But I hate when I have to stop in the middle of a page just to flip through a damn dictionary for a word.

It's unecessarily disruptive.

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Ceridwen

Right, I agree. Having to stop midway in the page just to look for the definition of an unfamiliar word is disrupting. Whenever it happens, I sometimes loose the thread of the story. But right after I finish the novel, I just write down the unfamiliar words I have encountered and then that's the time I'm going to open a dictionary.

Relating to this topic, I hope someone could also help me regarding "Words".

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