This past weekend, one of my sons shared some poetry and wisdom snippets he's writing with the goal of self-publishing them into a book (Yes, he's caught the bug).
So I shared a short chapter from Before the Blood. And he got hung up on the word "libation."
He didn't know its definition; he felt it made the reading hard; and he accused me of picking it at random from a thesaurus. I defended its use in the context: it said much in one word.
As writers, we should write succinctly: a single strong word appropriately placed has more impact than a string weak ones. But how strong should those words be? Do today's readers have a good understanding of broad vocabulary? And can they understand the subtext in certain word choices?
Readerly and writerly friends: Thoughts?
So I shared a short chapter from Before the Blood. And he got hung up on the word "libation."
He didn't know its definition; he felt it made the reading hard; and he accused me of picking it at random from a thesaurus. I defended its use in the context: it said much in one word.
As writers, we should write succinctly: a single strong word appropriately placed has more impact than a string weak ones. But how strong should those words be? Do today's readers have a good understanding of broad vocabulary? And can they understand the subtext in certain word choices?
Readerly and writerly friends: Thoughts?
