Word Choice in Creative Writing
By Mary Kole
Mary Kole is a former literary agent, freelance editor, writing teacher, author of Writing Irresistible Kidlit, and IP developer for major publishers, with over a decade in the publishing industry.
Word choice is an important part of writing, especially when it comes to expressing your ideas with flair and clarity. Whether you’re crafting a novel, short story, or poem, the words you choose to use can make or break your writing voice. But how do you know how to hone your word choice skills? How do you craft sentences that resonate with your readers? How can word choice contribute to the development of your overall writing style and craft? Let’s take a look.
Word Choice: The Power of Words
Words have power—they can evoke emotion, make a reader care, create vivid literary imagery, and bring stories and characters to life. Word choice depends on many factors such as your intended audience, genre, tone, and subject matter. As a writer, it’s important that you learn how to select words that are both accurate and effective in conveying your message or idea or mood. That being said, it’s also essential that your word choice is appropriate for your intended audience—for example, if you’re writing for a young audience, avoid using technical jargon. When you’re writing books for young adults, don’t lean too heavily on slang, as this can come off as forced. Matching word choice to your audience is a skill that might take a lot of reading like a writer to truly hone.
Word Choice: Know When a Sentence is Working Well
A well-crafted sentence should flow naturally from one idea to the next without being too choppy or disjointed. You will also want to prioritize simplicity over style, which means not indulging in unnecessary smart words or purple prose. Believe it or not, you don’t need to be the most impressive writer to generate the strongest writing. Sometimes, the writers who try too hard to be dazzling are the ones that fizzle out instead, at least when it comes to impressing literary agents and publishers, who see overwriting as a liability.
If you really want to see how word choice affects your writing, read your work aloud and pay attention to how each sentence sounds—if it feels awkward or unnatural in any way, then consider self-editing your sentences and paragraphs. Don’t be afraid to experiment with different words until you find the ones that best fit your purpose, without taking away from the overall effect of what you are trying to say. Don’t stop at individual word choice, either. Think of the rhythm and length of your sentences, think of whether you’re using long, languid phrases with many clauses, or are writing in a more straightforward style.
The best thing about creative expression is that you can always try new voices or choices to find your authorial voice or the voice of an individual project.
Word Choice and Writing Voice
To that point, your word choice helps give shape and form to your writing voice—how you use words allows readers insight into who you are as a thinker and writer as well as helping them connect on a deeper level with your work.
Crafting beautiful sentences requires skillful word choice, but this part of writing voice isn’t all about razzle-dazzle. As you hone your writing on the sentence level, remember to think of who you are as a writer, and how you intend to stand out from the other artists out there. To write well means using both word choice and structure. By being intentional about your craft, you can develop your unique writing voice and establish yourself over time.
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