Why do I love writing? I could list off the plethora of things that transfixed me to this harrowing and competitive game of chess, but right now we’ll speak on behave of the words. Well, more accurately vocabulary.
Could you imagine, each word spoken fluttering out like a butterfly, to then reside in a swath of fluttering wings. I love words because they are the embodiment of meaning. Since I was young, I always had a habit of digging for the meaning of things. Taking things at face value is mundane and lackluster at best. I’ve always been told you the world is what you make of it.
When I began to truly enjoy reading, I found delight in discovering new words and deciphering their code. I discovered words were a portal to my voice, allowing me access to my thoughts in their entirety. My fountain of youth.
This was huge for me for many reasons, but most importantly because I never felt understood. I would speak and no one would listen, or they would respond in an off-putting way – as though they couldn’t decipher my English. To say the least, it was disheartening. But, words morphed into my superpower and showed me the unfathomable light of self expression.
Now, I’m sure you aren’t reading this to get my life’s story so let’s get to the nitty and grittier mechanisms of vocab. Why not words, potato potato? To put it bluntly yes potato potato. But the vocabulary is the collection of words you use to evoke an emotion and maturity from your prose. In children’s literature your predominant selection is the basics. But as you get to older literature the vocab, or word choice helps dictate the tone, emotional depth, but also has to connect with the group you are writing to.
Through muck and mist, students somberly drudged in upheaval to the demolished school, their final goodbye. Or,
“Boots and tennis shoes velcroed clay mud to the students as they clawed their way uphill to the demolished school one last time.
How you write is important, but what you write is just as crucial to the vividness you wish to portray to your audience. This doesn’t mean there needs to be big lavish, doctoral language everywhere. That just accredits you as pompous and condescending to your audience. Don’t know many people who actively look to be called or deemed an idiot. Look for the moments in your prose that the most emotionally wrought. Those moments in your scenes that are the most vivid, or big plot moments that you want the most kick.
The point of this is you want to diverse your portfolio, and use your colored highlighters to make the important things memorable and lasting. It’s all about milking the emotion to create a lasting effect on the audience. More than the story, a reader wants an experience, to feel something. I can barely recall most of the characters, plot, or the little intricacies of each book I’ve read over the years. But, the emotions I felt, that roller coaster of an experience I was taken on I still remember to this day.