What words do you use in your writing?

Kitti

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I came across this article, which is an interesting look at some gender differences in word choice but, more interestingly I think for me, also notes word choice of rejected versus accepted articles and offers some insight as to why certain words might be more likely to appear in accepted/rejected works.

An example of this is specifics, where words like "son" and "daughter" fare better than "kids" and "babies".

Do you choose your words thoughtfully, even down to noun choice (which is often overlooked for fancier adjectives and descriptive verbiage)? Do you think your words are working to create the stories that you want to tell and have the impact you're looking for?
 
I think this is really fascinating. Word choice is very important to consider, in order to evoke the right tone and imagery. The whole "kids" versus "son/daughter" thing is a really good example of that. It's one reason why using a thesaurus can actually be dangerous; while synonyms overlap in meaning, there's perceived context that varies wildly. "Callow" and "youthful" give off very different connotations.
 
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Do you choose your words thoughtfully, even down to noun choice (which is often overlooked for fancier adjectives and descriptive verbiage)?
I try to for the most part. Since most of my writing is fantasy in medieval sort of worlds, a lot of words wouldn't make sense, like calling kids 'kids' as opposed to 'children', or something as simple as pants or a jacket, because it wouldn't be exactly correct for what I'm writing about.
 
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I try to for the most part. Since most of my writing is fantasy in medieval sort of words, a lot of words wouldn't make sense, like calling kids 'kids' as opposed to 'children', or something as simple as pants or a jacket, because it wouldn't be exactly correct for what I'm writing about.
One of the things I find interesting when doing fantasy or historical writing is that some words are older than you might think. For instance, a lot of people use sofa instead of couch to try and avoid sounding too modern, but couch is actually the older term!
 
Depends on the characters, tbh - Like... in general, even in narrative, I'll use more empathetic tones for words with characters who behave that way... but characters that are perhaps more crude or simpler aren't gonna speak or narrate that way - so where I might use "son/daughter" for a character who is more compassionate or deeply emotional something less so, I would probably not be so concerned with the semantics. I also try to avoid anachronisms like crazy, tho, so that factors in. I'm not a fan of out of place/time writing at all.
 
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Depends on the characters, tbh - Like... in general, even in narrative, I'll use more empathetic tones for words with characters who behave that way... but characters that are perhaps more crude or simpler aren't gonna speak or narrate that way - so where I might use "son/daughter" for a character who is more compassionate or deeply emotional something less so, I would probably not be so concerned with the semantics. I also try to avoid anachronisms like crazy, tho, so that factors in. I'm not a fan of out of place/time writing at all.
In line with this, I try to use terminology in line with a character's culture.

My supernatural hunters who are bred magical supersoldiers will say 'young' (children), 'male' (men, boys, etc), 'female' (women, girls, etc), and 'mate' (soulmate). The ones who rule those hunters will refer to the hunters using that language, but to humans using children, kids, men, boys, girls, women, couples, and so on. It comes down to culture and mindset.
 
I don't worry too much about the word choice outside of dialogue. I kind of just go with the flow because I see it as more of a "well it's not like i'm getting myself published so if the story is still believeable, it's not a cause to worry about word choice". For instance, for a Victorian era roleplay, I "worry" about word choice just enough to make the scene believeable, but I would personally focus more on dialogue and how my characters say things.
 
Yeah, it's definitely not something to freak out over, but sometimes word choice can still affect immersion.

In fact, that's part of why studying etymology is really fun for me. <3
 
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