When attempting to write stories or anything else I try to spice up the language with out-of-the-ordinary words. I used to carry around a thesaurus with me just to find interesting or old-timey ways of saying everyday things.
One story in particular was about a boy's first date. When meeting the girl's stepfather, the man punches the boy and tells him to stay away from his pachyderms. I was deployed at the time and could not for the life of me figure out how to spell that word. It still looks wrong to me. Pachyderm is another word for a thick skinned animal like an elephant, pronounced pack-e-derm. I easily could have said elephant and moved on, but I get so obsessed with using specific fancy words, that it became impossible for me to finish the story.
That is my biggest problem with words. I try to be unique and end up being unheard because I never finish anything. I do not know if that is the same problem as getting confused by words but I am generally terribly confused when I try to lift myself up above the trash that I enjoy living in. It would also help me in being more straightforward if I avoided using a superfluous vocabulary.
Yes, I misspelled that word at first too.
I don't necessarily try to use fancy or old-timey ways of saying things, but I do think that different words have slightly different connotations, even though they may be synonyms. Sometimes I struggle to find the right word because I feel the word that comes to mind isn't quite the one I want to use.
ReplyDelete