Word Choice
I've been struggling with word choice in my writing lately. I don't have an expanded vocabulary, first of all. But, I've also been feeling frozen when simply trying to choose words to get my thoughts on paper (or screen). I've written several reviews recently for the magazine and it's really been a struggle to sort my thoughts out. I got pretty frustrated yesterday over a review and when I begrudgingly read it to my mom, she didn't understand what was wrong with it. Perhaps I'm just worried that the magazine won't like my writing and so I put too much thought into it. But, they are making me a (paid) reviewer and they just gave me my first freelance assignment. I wouldn't think that I would be getting those opportunities if they didn't like what I was submitting.
I know that I'm not mistaken regarding my limited vocabulary. I read an article in a writer's magazine yesterday about how important choosing the right words is - how "selecting the right word that conveys just the right meaning and can't easily slip over into some other meaning entirely - that is a writer's job." Even now, I'm having a difficult time finding the words to express why that sentence creates a feeling of inadequacy in me, but suffice it to say that it does.
I know that I get stuck in my head way too easily and too often, which gets in my way a great deal - in all aspects of my life, not just my writing. Perhaps it's as simple as inexperience and that the more I write, the more I'll expand. I dunno. I don't want to get too caught up in trying to figure out why. I'm just trying to be aware.
Love,
Aislinn
I know that I'm not mistaken regarding my limited vocabulary. I read an article in a writer's magazine yesterday about how important choosing the right words is - how "selecting the right word that conveys just the right meaning and can't easily slip over into some other meaning entirely - that is a writer's job." Even now, I'm having a difficult time finding the words to express why that sentence creates a feeling of inadequacy in me, but suffice it to say that it does.
I know that I get stuck in my head way too easily and too often, which gets in my way a great deal - in all aspects of my life, not just my writing. Perhaps it's as simple as inexperience and that the more I write, the more I'll expand. I dunno. I don't want to get too caught up in trying to figure out why. I'm just trying to be aware.
Love,
Aislinn
posted by Aislinn at
6:37 PM
2 Comments:
The only real way to expand your working vocabulary is to read, read a lot, with a dictionary and encyclopedia near to hand.
And you must read writers from whom you habitually stay clear. If you like New Age writers, stay away from them, for now (their vocabulary is not only limited, they also make up words--neologisms--with limited sense or poetry to them, instead of using words that are already in the language.) Read the classics. Read writers who write with complexity and a large vocabulary. Read writers who sustain arguments and complex images over many pages.
Read, read, read.
And write about what you read.
Go girl. Go.
By
David Millstone, at 7:50 PM
Thanks, David. I appreciate your continued interest and support in my growth as a writer.
- Aislinn
By
Aislinn, at 10:23 PM
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