Monday, February 20, 2012

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?

    13 comments:

    1. Ooh, perch is so pretty. I always get sporadically and spontaneously mixed up when I talk.
      I recenly discovered that I overused the word "jovial" in a story. But it's so fun! :)
      Ah, words.

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    2. I don't know why, but 'slip' has always been a favorite word of mine and it manages to slip into my writing (see!) more frequently than it should.

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    3. I love to use the word "malarky" ^_^

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    4. Nice list! I love action words that have to do with fighting. Like "thrust" and "swing" and "parry." Dang, I just love words in general.

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    5. Totally! I use totally way too much. LOL

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    6. For some reason, I must love the word especially b/c I use it way too much in my writing. Other fun words that come to mind: surreptitiously, scrabble, extricate, glistening, sparkle. Hey, sounds like a good story...

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    7. absence. It just strikes a chord within my heart...

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    8. "faraway" and "whisper" are favourites, and I love using "amorevolous" as well, because it's so unheard of, haha.

      Clueless! ♥

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    9. I like sharp, hard words like 'shard' and 'shatter' and 'blade'. But the words I overuse like crazy in my work are 'just' and 'look'....

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    10. My favorite word is buckyballs (which is actually an atom. Aka buckminsterfullerene in the science world).

      Anyways, whenever I'm reading I keep those little sticky flags with me so that when I find a word I don't know, I flag it and then when I'm done with the book, I look them all up. In the latest book I read, The Unbecoming of Maya Dyer (LOVED IT), I learned 28 new words. :D

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    12. I like Divergent, Delirium, Wither...no, wait, those are books.

      Juxtaposition is one of my favorites. Also marmalade. Although as an actual thing if I had to chose between the former and the latter I would always chose the former.

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    13. Sereh - we had to do coursework on bucky balls, and me and my friends turned it into a euphemism - endless fun for a bunch of immature 16-yr-olds!

      My favourite words are "unutterably", "melancholy" and "Autumn". I think it says something about me as a person ;)

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