Caligula's Launderette
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 Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2006 4:37 am Post subject: D is for Diction |
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D is for Diction
Diction - Wording, phrasing, phraseology, verbiage, elocution, vocabulary, rhetoric; closely linked with a writer's ability to describe well.
1. Choice and use of words in speech or writing.
2. Degree of clarity and distinctness of pronunciation in speech or singing; enunciation.
Wait this isn't a vocabulary lesson, crudmuffin -oops!- so here's where I go about, expounded on, something... So arm yourself with a thesaurus, men, let us go into the breach!
LESS IS MORE: The Suspenseful Sister
So what is this less is more business? Well I find that most writers, myself included, try to say too much while writing and they get caught up in that; descriptions and actions drag on, dialogue is flimsy. Note this is why I feel exact word counts should be shot.
STICKY-NOTE: Don't try an overload the reader by putting to many adjectives in one sentence. i.e. The girl had long, brown hair and expressive, sparkling, green-blue eyes.
A wise person once said, less speaks volumes while more overloads the senses. Simple things work. Applied to dialogue: Sometimes what a character doesn’t say reveals more than if everything is let out in the open. This can be also used effectively with description and tone; i.e. in say a particularly bleak scene a mass dumping of detail can ruin it.
STICKY NOTE: S is for Suspense. By detail dumping, info dumping you take away the suspense in the story. Suspense as in a state or condition of mental uncertainty or excitement. By creating mystery it adds more to the depth of the piece. A murky depth. (Okay, okay... I'll stop with the horrible puns... I promise...)
BE PRECISE: Half-A-Siamese-Twin
This is the under appreciated siamese twin of LESS IS MORE. Action and description should be exact even if what you are describing is shady. Every word should have its place. You can always come back and change something. Be concrete, be positive and exact; be precise in your diction.
LET THE FORCE BE WITH YOU...
...or All I ever needed to know I learned from Star Wars. *wink*
Rule #1: Don't force your writing. Now, what do I mean by that? No, don't poke a hole in your parchment with a fountain-pen. Not that kind of forcing. Most of the time you want your writing to be fluid and protean, just like your moves in a light-saber duel. You don't want to open yourself up, leaving yourself vulnerable for your opponent to strike. The same goes for writing; keep the level of your diction consistent, even read out loud to make sure it flows. And let the force be with you...
SAY WHAT YOU MEAN, MEAN WHAT YOU SAY
Ah, the part all about connotation. Connotation, it's kind of like Mufasa -MUFASA!- I love to hear it (and shiver), 'cause at first it scared the bejesus out of me. MUFASA! *shiver* Now, its just conditioned into me. Pay no attention to the shivering.
Connotation: *shiver* the associated or secondary meaning of a word or expression in addition to its explicit or primary meaning, A possible connotation of “home” is “a place of warmth, comfort, and affection.”
Even though your public might end up picking over your diction with a pair of tweezers to determine meaning, you, as the writer should know what you want to say, and for godsakes say it.
i.e. you are describing a character's height, you could use-
tall = high of stature; it works but is over-used (aka weak-sauce)
alpine = tall; makes me think mountaintop
giant = large, colossal, huge; fantasy perhaps?
lofty = high, elevated; hmm, building...
-think about each of those adjectives and the mental picture/connotation you get from each of them, and from that choose the best one that fits. Ooo... fits like a glove. Yeah, I couldn't help but saying, er, typing that.
CL's Smackdown: ACTION VERBS vs. PASSIVE VERBS
Action Verb - Express something that a person, animal, force of nature, or thing can do. i.e. explode, meander, peer.
Passive Verb - the dull verbs, which have their place but are rather... dull. i.e. walk, see, do, be.
Try to use action verbs as much as possible to create a richer experience for the author. But also be reminded have your diction match the tone of your piece. So I wouldn't put, say, run, when I meant scamper; or glimpse when in fact it was really see. Or something, or other...
THIS IS SO SKETCH
Yes, sketch, like the creepy, in-slopping, hole-in-the-floor, people-can-fit-through-the-unlockable-window, french hotel room sketch. So sketch diction, what is it exactly? It is when the words have a head on collision with the tone and/or denotation, i.e. I will read something, and the words will be either too weak or too strong, and it destroys the flow of the piece.
Also, sketch diction also applies to when you describe something and it doesn't feel correct, it feels sketchy, as in persons, places, and things don't add up. It's when you leave the reader, thinking: what? that doesn't match. It's like plaids and stripes, they don't match, you need some solids in there.
COMMITTING THE OLDEST SINS IN THE NEWEST WAYS: CLICHES THAT KILL
Someone, somewhere once said that there are no new ideas, just old ideas in new packages. Another once said that no matter how you dress up a cow, it's still a cow. So what's the deal about cliches, and how does that effect my diction?
Here is a rather cliched intro: It was a dark and stormy night....
Now how many times have you heard, seen, read, even wrote that phrase there? No, don't count now.
Let's put that in the margarita shaker: It was a torrid, aphotic night...
Mmm... spice-ey! Mmm... salt.
RINSE, REPEAT
Repetition, e gads, sometimes it works, i.e. when you are pushing a point consecutively, most of the time it doesn't, i.e. when you use the same word excessively to describe the same thing. Ick... boring. After the third, fourth, fifth, even seventy-eight time, it's lame, in the worst way. Put the word into the margarita shaker, and shake it! Mix it up a bit. Flush out the over-used and your readers will thank you for it.
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Last but not least, write, never stop writing, for each time you engage your mind, you grow. No matter how bad you think you are, there is always up, atrophy is not the answer.
More from me later.
CL. |
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Last edited by Caligula's Launderette on Thu Aug 24, 2006 5:05 am; edited 2 times in total |
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