On Word Choice

I have decided for my final blog to write about my own work. Currently I am writing a fantasy novel for my cousin for a Secret Santa game my family is doing this year for Christmas. I am a third done and need to talk about my experience writing a novel. I think that whenever I have written down stories before they have never been longer than seven or eight pages but now I am third way through a planned 100-page novel.

I think the most frustrating experience as a writer is my shallow depository of vocabulary. What I mean is whenever I am writing to say things eloquently, with precision, beauty and attractiveness. What I find instead is a group of about fifty to sixty words which force themselves through my hands and into my manuscript. It makes the creative process at worst excruciatingly nauseating and at best wickedly dull. I am sure that the reading process would mimic such reactions.

So I decided to test my self by putting my manuscript in wordle. It came out with my top used words in a creative, artistic format. Use it on your papers, your blog posts or even a favourite play for fun. I have decided to list the top used words without any conjunction or proper names. They are as follows:

- need (I tend to write from the view-points of the characters, although I am inconsistent with this, and this word is used a lot from the characters point of view. I seem to have one-dimensional characters who only think in terms of 'need')
- violence (One of the many themes of the book, I guess I can not hide it very well and use the word a lot. Now that I know this I will try to find other, more covert, ways in order to bring out this theme)
- moved (I tend to write very akwardly when it comes to physical movement of characters as the plot progresses. The frequent use of this word proves my intuition that I can not write actual events creatively or expressively)
- together (Another word related to my theme, but one better hidden. A lot of the book deals with 'Life Together' or communal living on a journey. I feel that this is a pretty standard word though and may need to find others ways in order to clearly articulate this main theme or idea running through the story. I should also find ways to indirectly show this)
- know (The plot is driven by personality, and I am finding one of my weaknesses deals with not being able to show the full contours and multiple dimensions of personality. In my writing personality seems to be essentialized in phrases like "they know" and as before "they need")
- good (This might be just laziness on my part but when I want to express something as good I should find other interesting and innovative ways besides saying in a rather dull fashion "It was good" or "They were good")
- history (This is less of a theme in the book and more of part of me that seems to have soaked through the layers of the text to come up over and over. I tend to think a lot in the terms and categories of narrative, story, tradition and history and this personal bent seems to have cast shadows in my work)
- sun (This one is simple: whenever I can't think of anything to say or any events to emerge I usually begin talking about the weather or the atmosphere, which always involves a 'bright sun' somehow)
- found (Just as 'need' and 'know' feature extensively as my own construction of personality so also does 'found' as apparently in my little literary world characters are very minimalist creatures who are driven by 'need' and desire to 'know', both of which require 'found'. As in "I found what I needed" or "I found what I wanted to know")
- people (my characters often encounter large crowds and interact with them in some way. This is either from me needing to add some action into a boring scene and not knowing how without adding a crowd or my own personal interest in group psychology seeping through the vocabulary use of this text)
- group (The characters are almost always together. I can't seperate them! But then I just can't describe well that they are in the group so I resort to saying 'group'.)
- death (As I said 'violence' is a theme so naturally the word 'death' will appear every once in a while)
- earth (At the same time I use the word 'sun' a lot to describe the atmosphere when I can think of any event to write about I use to word 'earth' to keep people, well, grounded. What I mean is that I intentionally try to describe the details of the surrounding, what colour leaves or what texture of 'earth', not so that they can imagine a very detailed picture of what is happening but in order to cultivate their imaginations and give the impression of reality.)
- houses (Another major aspect of the novel is the characters interaction with cities. I tend to be in a poverty of language when I approach urban areas in writing and end up trying to describes 'houses', their colours, make-up and shape. I hope, therefore, to lead any reader away from my lack of description of anything else in the city)
- horde (One of the themes of my book is, again, violence. What better images of violence are there than a loud, unorganized, dirty and bloody 'horde')
- attack (This is word is used a lot for two reasons. One, obviously, is my intent on displaying and considering violence. Two, my excess anxiety that I have a lack of plot. An anxiety which I fill by producing various scenes where the hyperbolic action of 'attach' is used.)

And my most used word outside of proper names?

BEGAN

I think the reason for this illustrated one of my biggest obstacles as a writer. Because of the way I think and behave in my life I have a difficulty imagining or expressing action. In my day-to-day moment by moment life I tend to experience, enjoy, participate and value conversations and dialogue over lesser-experienced, lesser-enjoyed and not very well participated in action. The closest thing I come to action is walking, and I walk a lot. But walking, walking and walking is not something very interesting in a story. Therefore I have this constant ghost haunting my work; a fear of writing inane chit-chat and long dialogue as opposed to captivating and enthralling action.
This is why, I believe, I use the word 'BEGAN' so much. It expresses an urgent desire to display action. To begin, and begin and begin and begin. Unfortunately I do not think this actually translates into more and more action with an increasingly eventful plot. Alternatively it becomes an overly abused and cruelly tortured verb which happens to return to my lexicon every so-often only to be hurt and assaulted once again.

Now where does this leave me?

I've been seriously trying to understand what is better to use: the same word used over and over again to create potency and value to the text or the playful wielding of synonyms in a thrust and parry of literary beauty? This is a serious question not only as an author (amateur as I may be) but also a reader (also as amateur I may be). I can see the strengths of both sides. The constant use of the same word can establish a well drawn out theme of idea. On the other hand the mixing of a multitude of synonyms and metaphors can help to create a genuine sense of originality and uniqueness to the text without being painfully obvious about the thematic elements within.
Then again the constant use of the same word or words can be come stale, dry, repetitive and boring, It can become unreadable and revolting. Also the use of multiple words for the same thing, idea or concept can crush a reader's sense of coherence and drown them in an endless sea of confusion and frustration. Both types of uses, then, can have very negative and unpleasant results despite the promise and potential for great use.
As for me I am still undecided. Do I go the one route and prefer a certain set of words, seeing them used over and over again for the good of the text or do I choose the road of synonyms as a road less travelled (in the sense each word is used but not too often) and hoping that it makes all the difference? As I have said, I can not decide. Hopefully for my cousin, whatever path I choose to depart on, he will enjoying reading what I have wrote. That despite perhaps poor word choices the text becomes something wonderful for him, something to curl up on the couch and read with a cup of warm cocoa on some cold, blustery winter day.