Young Writers Society

Great article on Mashable:
15 words you should eliminate from your vocabulary to sound smarter

Technically, the article is referring to your everyday speech, but I think it works even better for the way you write a story. Here's a good example:

2. Went

I went to school. Or the store, or to church, or to a conference, to Vegas, wherever it is you're inclined to go. Instead of "went," consider drove, skated, walked, ran, flew. There are any number of ways to move from here to there. Pick one. Don't be lazy and miss the chance to add to your story.

So essentially we should remove "went" from pur vocabulary the best we can?

Never have I read such an amazing article that just literally went and blew my mind. Maybe I'm being very callous and stuff, but I honestly always thought that irregardless of a person's education they're going to keep doing things like this. And there's really absolutely nothing that we can do about that.

I could see how this article would be helpful if you wanted to sound smarter when talking to people, however 8, 9 & 12 specifically mention writing. So, when it comes to writing...

I disagree with writing quotes and advice 90% of the time that I read them whether it be on pinerest or in a published "how to write" book. I agree that some of the words in this article are best left out, but others I think are fine, especially when a character is speaking. It said you should eliminate from your whole vocabulary? Really? When it comes to writing, I think the article talks too widely. Or rather than saying "vocabulary" all together, they should specify what part of writing they're talking about. I know the article was mostly for talking to people in real life, but as I said earlier, they did specifically mention writing in 8, 9 & 12 and I assume this was posted on YWS as a writing guide. Some of the words were perfectly fine for narration but should be left out of description. Some words were best left out of description and narration but would be fine in the characters thoughts. Maybe I feel this way because I mostly write in first-person POV, but that's what I think.

"That was amazing."
"He went that way."

"I really wish you would tell me what you've been doing." I finally say, growing tired of his secrecy.
"Oh, you know... Stuff."

I suppose using the article would make your characters sound smarter when talking too, but because most people do talk using those words, wouldn't it sound a little unrealistic? It good for if you're writing someone brilliant or sophisticated but for the average person or teenager... I think these are pretty common words that would be strange for an average person/character not to use.

I freeze up when the handsome jock walks by me and I flash him an awkward smile. Once he's gone and I let out a breath of air and mentally kick myself for my weirdness. I always do that. I never should have asked him to the dance.

So, I think if the article specified that those were words that shouldn't be used for description, (because saying he ran very fast or jumped amazingly high is a little cheesy), then it's probably mostly right. But to completely take it out of your vocabulary... I think every word has it's place.

I completely agree with @LeftyWriter that when it comes to dialogue, sometimes you want to purposefully include these words but eliminating them in your narrator's sections of the novel is so powerful. It forces you to be more descriptive or specific and to actually build a stronger, more precise narrative.

I read the article and I am finding it hard to eliminate these words (I don't even remember all of them). The reason is that these are so common words, and you sometimes need them and you could still have descriptive narration and beautiful imagery. I just all depends on what you pair with it and so forth.

So I practically don't agree with it in that sense, although it does make you smarter, but teenagers don't talk like they are smarter (especially with text slang and abbreviation.)

The only two words that I would probably completely eliminate from my vocabulary and writing is "always" & "never". Those are absolutes and it's not true that this always happens or that this never happens. Because there might be that one time where something goes wrong or happens differently and then you just contradicted yourself, which isn't a good place to be.

"Literally" means literal. Actually happening as stated. Without exaggeration. More often than not, when the term is used, the writer means "figuratively."

I totes agree. Most people misuse the word literally, and substitute another meaning and just use it all the time. This isn't meant for exaggeration.

Literally-in a literal manner or sense; exactly:

That is the definition of it. So it's means exactly this or exactly that. How do you all use it?

~Peace Out~

/Pretzelsing/

I have yet to read the article, but let's see if I can deduce from @Demeter's post what the words are.

1. literally
2. went
3. blew my mind
4. maybe
5. being
6. callous
7. stuff
8. honestly
9. always
10. irregardless
11. going to
12. keep doing
13. things
14. really
15. absolutely

All right, let's see how I did. *reads article*

Drat! She didn't use it in order. Nevertheless, I'm delighted to see I spotted most of them.

1. that - I agree, but I missed it; however, it still has its place as a relative pronoun, so it can't be discarded completely
2. went - thanks, Nate
3. honestly - I'm not fond of redundant sentence modifiers myself
4. absolutely - (the same as above)
5. very - I have a bookmark in my textbook at the "stronger verbs" page so I can easily replace "very [something]", yet I overlooked it completely D:
6. really - I don't see the point in using this at all
7. amazing - I strongly considered this one, but my assumption that it was in order threw me off (went is number two)
8. always - hear, hear
9. never - it hid in plain sight by being the first word in the paragraph
10. literally - I cannot understand why anyone would imply the connotation by using a word that implies the denotation
11. just - literary justice will prevail! (still missed it, though)
12. maybe - "perhaps" sounds so much fancier
13. stuff - <_<
14. things - >_>
15. irregardless - malapropisms hurt my eyes

66% isn't that bad, is it? I avoid most of these words already, but they are still acceptable in dialogue, especially when the character isn't a language professor. The same goes for clichés. However, words like "amazing" or "really" should definitely be excluded from anything other than dialogue or thoughts.

Thank you for posting the article, @Nate.