Words, Words, Words

 

As writers, we deal with words. Thousands and thousands of words. If you hope to have your writing stand out above others, you must choose your words carefully. 

When we write a first draft, our intent is to get the story written with the basic idesas, or the essay, or your article. The first draft is the bones, and later we edit and revise in order to flesh it out. Our aim is to polish the piece until it shines enough to be ready to submit for publication.

One of the things we do in our revision and editing process is to check for words that can be changed from mundane to magnificent. Well, maybe not magnificent but words that have a little sparkle that will enrich your story and appeal to the reader.

The poster for today shows a lengthy list of synonyms for the palin word 'want.' Using one of these synonyms is going to bring a bit more sparkle to your story. A few examples below:

A.  I want to go to the concert.

B.  I yearn for going to the concert.

C.  I have a great desire to attend the concert.

D.  I'm dying to attend that concert.

E.  I have a yen to attend the concert.

Sentence A is a simple one using 'want' while the other four are telling us the same thing but in a stronger, more interesting way. 

When you go through your first draft, look for simple words that can be changed. You might not simply insert one word for another. Instead, you can change the sentence around a bit in order to use better words. It's not a matter of pluck this one out, pop that one in. Look at the five sentences above and see how eliminating 'want' can change more than one word. 

If you write something like '...the green grass...' try something like '..the verdant prairie grass ...'  If you wrote 'He saw a river when he reached the top of the hill.' try 'He spied the silver ribbon of water from atop the bluff.'

We often hear advice to change passive verbs to active ones. When we write a first draft, we are quite apt to use far too many of those passive verbs. Many can be changed to active ones. It takes a bit of thought. The more you do this, the more it becomes habit, and your mind will start coming up with the active verbs even as you write the first draft. 

The more we do something, the easier it becomes. We establish habits even for something as simple as changing a generic type of word. Do a word search on your first draft with words like 'he, was, want, she, they' and other simple words that we often overuse. When you have a 1200 word essay, and you used 'was' a hundred times, fix it.' 

Writers should be the master of words, but sometimes we fall back on old reliable words. Instead, we should venture forth into the land of exciting, beautiful, descritpive words. We are like artists, but we paint with words instead of chalk or oils. 

Writers and Words

The photo today is of a coaster that I keep on my computer desk. It's meant for a glass or cup, but it also is a fine reminder for me. It reminds me what my writing world is about. 

Writers put words on paper or screen. One word. A phrase with several words. A sentence with even more words. A paragraph made up of many words. You get the picture, I'm sure.

Yes, we writers use words every time we write. How those words are used varies from writer to writer.

One may use very ordinary words, passive verbs instead of action, no adjectives, few sensory details. Plain, not fancy, is the way this writer might describe his/her work. 

Those who 'fancy' it up a bit by using a variety of words, active verbs, occasional adjectives, and many sensory details are the writers who end up with publishable material. They are the ones who pay attention to the mechanics of writing, edit and revise until they are satisfied with the end product. 

These writers search for better words when they edit a first draft. They work at showing rather than telling. They put more time and effort into their writing than the first kind of writer cited above. 

Effort is important in our writing world. Reaching goals ranks high, as well. Improving as a writer is an all the time job. We should not be satisfied with mediocre work. Instead, we writers should always strive to move higher on our writing journey. 

And yes, those words we write should come from the heart, just as my coaster says. When the words do come from your heart, it shows in what you write. It is evident that you care about what you offer your readers. 

 

In Writers' Hands

This is a post from 2012 that is still worth sharing today. Something for all writers to consider.

Lately, I've seen a TV spot about the power of words several times. Ann Curry of the NBC Today show is the person featured in the spot. It's very short, but it has made me do some thinking about the subject. 

Think about the things that words can do. They persuade, cajole, flatter and compliment. Words can also hurt, defame, punish and degrade. Spoken words are gone once they leave our mouths, but our written words are still under our control until we send them to an editor or post them on our blog.

Have you ever said something you wished you hadn't? Have you written something when furious and then regretted it? More than a few people have written letters that they wish the post office had managed to lose instead of delivering.

The point here is that we writers need to choose our words carefully before putting them in the public eye. You might be writing a persuasive essay which is just fine. Look at it as objectively as possible when you finish. Ask yourself if you've said anything to hurt or defame others. I'm thinking of our political campaigns of late. Candidates hurl nasty words like bubbles little kids blow from a jar of sticky, soapy liquid. They try to tear down the other guy instead of extolling their own virtues as a candidate. Once a campaign is over, will they be able to gather all those unflattering words and push them into a big trash bag to be thrown out next week? Of course not!  They may have to work with the very people they've excoriated later on. Politicians would do well to give strong consideration to the power of words, as well as the lingering effects.

On a positive side, the words we write can offer tremendous encouragement to those who are floundering in despair. So many stories are written about overcoming a problem of some kind. The reader who is also facing trouble in her life is buoyed up by seeing that problems can be solved.

When I was a young, fresh-out-of-college, teacher of fourth graders, I had no idea how important the words that came from my mouth to the ears of 21 children might be. It wasn't until the first parent-teacher conferences that some of those words came back to me. Things I said in class often landed in the middle of a family dinner table. I ended up with feeling both elated and remorseful, depending on which of my words the parents mentioned. I knew I needed to select my words carefully when speaking with ten-year-olds, or anyone else.

When we write a story, article, essay or poem, we should think about the power of our words. If published, those words will travel far and wide. They'll reach the hearts and minds of myriad readers. Will our words encourage or hurt? We writers need to consider more carefully the power we hold with the words we write.