Words Matter (writing advice essay)

 

    If words didn’t matter, there would not be so many of them. As a writer you have free use of all of them. You can even make them up like Shakespear and Lewis Carroll loved to do. By picking the proper word you can say so much more and place the images in readers’ minds as you desire. I say proper instead of the right word because you want the word to naturally belong where it is used. With this in mind, I must first give warning against finding a word you love and making it fit. A famous writer who will remain unknown fell in love with the word miasma and he used it the right way, but how proper is this word in most cases? Does every narrator character use the word miasma? Remember the words you use out of the mouth of characters say a lot about that character, even the narrator. This is what it means by proper word.

 

    Things: Things have names. They have their simple name like boat and boat is the right word. The proper word needs to be enough to distinguish the boat as a specific boat. Is it a yacht? A battleship, and dingy? Do not just look up synonyms. Use the proper word for what you want it to be in your story. A writer who asked me to review a short story of theirs had a teen girl get on a ship and row it. He looked up synonyms that looked cooler than boat and ended up calling it a little used word which meant a medieval ship that had rows of oars that required a dozen men to row. Even unimportant things with the improper word can pull a reader out of a story. Imagine describing a place that could only grow wheat then later a bar sells cheap ale. Ale, if cheap, would be the improper word since it requires hops which would have to be imported, or the ale itself imported, making both more expensive than a drink made only from wheat like wheat whisky. This may seem petty; not everyone cares what ale is made from or how much it costs. But many readers will and will not like it if you get it wrong. Writers ask readers to suspend belief, yes. But this is only for the fantastic things in your stories. If you put falsehoods in a story, how can you expect to make the story feel real when the small details are so false?

 

    Overusing Adverbs: You remember these from English class. They are the part of speech that modify verbs. They do all the hard work even when there is often a verb that does it better on its own. Using adverbs makes the sentence sound passive when a single verb provides action. He ran fast. or He sprinted. or He fled. or He dashed. See how removing the adverb and picking the proper verb instead helps you say so much more?

 

    This is not a grammar lesson so we will not cover word mistakes like their/there/they’re. Instead, we will talk about the use of Assonance and Alliteration. Both are the use of similar sounds to create a rhythm or emphasis in writing. Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds close to each other. Imagine a sign outside an inn that promises: Rooms and good food! By repeating the oo sound the sign is memorable. This can be expanded to many uses within a story. This repetition may be known for poetry, but in prose it can be used to set mood or emphasis on certain words. For some of the best examples of their use in prose read a lot of Poe. Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds close in proximity. Some of the best examples would be tongue twisters, but it has a similar purpose as assonance to help draw attention or set a mood. Harsh sounds like “T” “CH” or “K” can create a very powerful fight seen where soft sounds like “L” or “M" can make for a soft love scene. The point of all this is to pick the proper words. Sometimes the proper word may not be the right word but does more for the story than the right word. Which makes a bigger impact: The ship sails the seven seas. or The yacht travels the oceans. Yacht and Oceans may be more accurate but the flow of all the esses may outweigh the accuracy. This is where you, the writer, decide what your unique voice is, with word choice and tone.