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? Make use of 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 or Amazon.com 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," but why limit yourself? Every one of us is raised differently, our environment playing a major role in the extent of our vocabulary 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 easily and use often when speaking and writing, without resorting to any additional resource beyond your own memory. Your recognition vocabulary is made up of words you don't use actively but still 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 the same meaning as those few words 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 typically 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, strolled, 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 Roget's 21st Century 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 writing will carry more weight.
The best part is, as you encounter these words and begin to use them regularly, you'll add them to your functional vocabulary and you'll need that thesaurus less and less as time goes on.
