Word Lover

I love words. With.A.Passion.

In my Professional Writing class at university, on the very first day, my lecturer posed a question to us about how language had changed over the centuries and did we agree that the simpler dialogue that had developed was better.

First to answer (cause I suffer from know-it-all-itis), I said the change was horrible because I didn't want to lose the rich culture of literature from years gone by.

I should now add that Professional Writing looked at communication from a business perspective and was basically a PR subject.

Well, my lecture, who I adored because she was a columnist in the local paper, shot me down and said simpler was better. Supposedly the average person has a reading age of a twelve year old and I had to write to that.

I was crestfallen at the thought of dumbing down my writing. My idea was to save endangered words, not stomp them into extinction.

But from a business writing perspective, she was right. And since I started as a journalist many years ago and moved into public relations, I have tailored my writing for my audience - simplifying it when I've needed to.

However, in my fiction realm I try to use a wider variety of words to keep the prose rich and warm. So here are some of my favourites that I love to use, but try not to over-use:

• Snavel
• Perch
• Snare
• Myriad
• Sporadically (thank you Clueless)
• Exasperated
• Blurt
• Scouring
• Scooch
• emanates

So, what are some of your favourite words?