Selecting the Most Powerful Word
Words have the power to create images in the
reader's mind. Those images are yours — the
writer's — to control, to manipulate and direct
based entirely on the words you choose to employ.
That power is within your grasp. All you have
to do is reach out and take hold of it.
How, you ask? A very simple matter of using
that fantastic tool we call a thesaurus. You've
all seen them before — you know, in the bookstore,
shelved side-by-side with the dictionaries and
a myriad of "How To Get Published In 90 Days
Or Less" handbooks — but do you own one? If
you don't already own a thesaurus, stop reading
right now, head to the bookstore and buy yourself
one. A writer without a thesaurus is like an
artist without paint, a sculptor without stone.
The tools to create are there but the substance
is missing.
Many a writer will claim, "I have all
the words I need right here in my mind."
My response: why limit yourself? Every one of
us is raised differently, our environment playing
a major role in the extent of the vocabulary
we develop and many times limiting that vocabulary
to the specific slice of culture we're exposed
to as we grow and mature.
In a language filled with variations and nuances,
there may be twenty different words used to
convey a similar meaning, and some words are
naturally more powerful than others. While writers
and readers may recognize each of the twenty
words and clearly understand the implied meaning,
they might possess only two or three of those
words in their functional vocabulary.
Your functional vocabulary includes
words you recall when speaking and writing,
without any additional resource beyond your
own mind and memory. Your recognition
vocabulary is made up of words you recognize
when you hear or read them. On average, a person's
recognition vocabulary is three times the size
of his or her functional vocabulary.
What does all this mean to you? It means for
every thought and image you attempt to convey,
you probably know three times as many words
with that same meaning as those few that come
to mind when you first put pen to paper. What
else does it mean? Your reader probably recognizes
three times as many words as well.
Start using those words you wouldn't normally
use. Every time you find yourself writing action
or description, stop and take a look at what
you've written. Locate any adjectives or adverbs,
then pick up your thesaurus and look up each
of those words. Read the list of synonyms next
to the word and consider each one. Do any of
them have more impact, more power, than the
word you originally selected?
Chances are, you'll find at least one synonym
that packs more of a punch than the original
word. Use that word instead and it's likely
you'll be using a word the reader probably doesn't
already encounter several times each day, adding
extra "oomph" to the equation.
Try to eliminate as many adverbs as possible.
Instead of writing, "He walked slowly,"
how about ambled, sauntered, meandered, crept,
snuck or skulked?
Take the advice of author Ursula K. Le Guin:
"When the quality that the adverb indicates can be
put in the verb itself (they ran quickly = they raced) or the
quality the adjective indicates can be put in the noun itself
(a growling voice = a growl), the prose will be cleaner, more
intense, more vivid."
Check out these common words, along with a
sampling of their synonyms found in the Roget
A to Z Thesaurus:
HAPPY - glad, joyful, joyous, radiant, beaming,
glowing, starry-eyed, sparkling, laughing, smiling,
cheerful, blissful.
TIRED - weary, fatigued, exhausted, spent,
run-down, worn, drawn, frazzled, beat, wan,
wilting, run ragged.
RUN - sprint, dash, rush, plunge, race, scamper,
flee, take flight, scurry, make off, take to
one's heels, rush headlong.
Anyone can use the word "tired" to describe
a character's current feeling, but don't "exhausted"
and "frazzled" take that emotion one step further?
If a stronger word is available, use it and
every inch of your script will carry more weight.
The best part is, as you encounter these words
and begin to use them regularly, you'll be adding
them to your functional vocabulary and you'll
need that thesaurus less and less as time goes
on.
© Kris Cramer. All rights reserved.
Reprinted here with the author's permission.
Click here to read more articles about writing and screenwriting.
