Yes, it bothers me a lot. I'm not a literary person, but i do think there are other creative ways of saying things because of the use of synonyms in Dark Ages literature like the Icelandic sagas and Anglo-Saxon poetry, e.g. the words "whale road" for "sea" and "slaughter dew" for "blood". I really welcome the current Prose That Blows competition for that very reason, though i may not get round to writing anything for it because i'm in the middle of "Honeymoon on Enceladus".
Stale Words
I was just thinking about this as I've been writing a little more frequently and I'm finding that some of my word use is getting a little stale at least to me. Now to try and rectify that I usually jump on thesaurus.com and use that to find different words to use. Even then there are some words out there that have only so many variations like stomach there's only so many different words for stomach. And not all of them really lend themselves well to expansion stories at least in my opinion.
So I guess I'm just wondering do other writers worry about having repetitive words in their stories? Or do you say the hell with it and just keep using the same words.
Also how do people reading these stories feel? Does it bother you when you see to many words being repeated?
Wed, 02/23/2011 - 22:15
#3
Thu, 02/24/2011 - 00:47
#4
Fleetingsanity
Ya the current Prose That Blows is kinda what made me want to start this thread. Being more creative and using synonyms does help out a lot just got to be careful not to get to ambiguous with them. I do use synonyms fairly often in my writings e.g. dirty pillows, or sex balloons but again there's only so much you can do with that before it gets a little to obscure.
I do agree with carnatic's opinion though as long as you mix it up enough most people won't really notice that much. I know I don't generally speaking when I'm reading expansion stories I'm not focusing to much on grammar and word use more so expansion and how big lol.
Thu, 02/24/2011 - 08:48
#5
I think you probably have to be careful not to lose people. Also, you might draw too much attention to the language without suggesting a new way of thinking of it.
Fri, 02/25/2011 - 01:52
#6
doubleintegral
carnatic wrote:
At the extreme end of the scale it's possible to overboard with synonyms and create a piece of writing that seems gratuitously thesaurised. Too many different words for saying the exact same thing can really stick out and make your vocabulary seem overly earnest.
That's why I'm curious to see the entries for our contest this time around. Hopefully we don't see too many sentences like: "Suddenly Melissa began quickly aerating and within seconds she was a giant female dirigible."
Fri, 02/25/2011 - 11:07
#7
Ha! As it happens i do use the word dirigible in my offering!
Fri, 02/25/2011 - 21:27
#8
LutherVKane
I suspect you'll see a lot of dirigibles and zeppelins this time around, since balloons and blimps are off limits.
I wonder if the folks at thesaurus.com will notice a surge in inflation-related queries :)
Fri, 02/25/2011 - 22:02
#9
I've mentioned dirigibles twice. I can't mention zeppelins because it's steampunk.
Fri, 02/25/2011 - 22:07
#10
Fleetingsanity
I'm a big fan of the word zeppelins I use it all the time. I thought about entering the prose that blows because I really liked the idea for it but I've got two stories I'm working on now so I don't want to put them on hold lol.
Sat, 02/26/2011 - 04:52
#11
doubleintegral
LutherVKane wrote:
I suspect you'll see a lot of dirigibles and zeppelins this time around, since balloons and blimps are off limits.
Zeppelin is a good and underused word, but to me it smacks a little of trying too hard to use a different word. Dirigible is off the scale in that regard - again, just IMO. I was hoping people would forgo that substitution entirely and just go a different direction, but I guess we'll just wait and see how people write and what the voters think.
Sat, 02/26/2011 - 05:00
#12
Fleetingsanity
I personally suspect we'll see a lot of she pulsed rounder and rounder or her dirty pillow(s) surged higher and higher into the air something along those lines.
Sat, 02/26/2011 - 09:09
#13
I use the word "dirigible" in a non-inflationary context. I haven't referred to the character as becoming or resembling one. It's more a sort of premature idea expressed in terms of the tabu words competition. I plan to do more with it later.
Sat, 02/26/2011 - 18:36
#14
doubleintegral
nineteenthly wrote:
I use the word "dirigible" in a non-inflationary context. I haven't referred to the character as becoming or resembling one. It's more a sort of premature idea expressed in terms of the tabu words competition. I plan to do more with it later.
Ah, gotcha.
Sun, 02/27/2011 - 08:26
#15
Actually i'm changing the story now because i can't fit it into the word limit, but it will still contain the word "dirigible"!
I don't think it bothers readers as much as it bothers writers. It's good to try and vary the language of your story, but as you have found out there are only so many ways to say 'stomach'. Each time you use it in a sentence you are creating a string of text that has never before been uttered in the whole of human civilisation and will never be repeated, so the fact that the words are repeated isn't too noticeable.
I think as long as you use 3 or 4 of these to give that variety and take special care not to use the same word twice in quick succession, you should be fine.
At the extreme end of the scale it's possible to overboard with synonyms and create a piece of writing that seems gratuitously thesaurised. Too many different words for saying the exact same thing can really stick out and make your vocabulary seem overly earnest.
We should perhaps come up with our own inflation thesaurus, containing words pertaining to our desires... in fact I might just do that now.