No words should be left Unwritten

Welcome back to another blog hop, with #OpenBook. Here’s this week’s prompt.

Don’t forget to click the link to see what everyone else has to say on this week’s subject. It’s at the end of my post.

We’ve talked about our favorite words. Are there words that you despise and won’t use?

I think despise is quite a harsh way of putting it. I don’t like quite a few words, especially the ones that don’t do much to add to the picture I’m painting. Words like “nice” spring to mind. Or words that are overused, such as “amazing” or “absolutely.”

Having said that, no matter how much I didn’t like a word, I would never not use it if I thought it was the right one for a situation that I was describing, or an authentic part of a section of dialogue. That’s the thin end of a slippery slope (to mangle a phrase).

If we’re not careful, we’ll be burning books because they use words we don’t approve of. Or saying that books containing such words must have been written by AI.

Suppose I had an idea for a story about an irritating character who was always saying that everything was nice, or absolutely amazing (I know someone like this in real life, btw). It would be wrong not to write about their adventures purely because I’m not keen on those words.

In this situation, I would probably try to turn my dislike of the words into a selling point.

Then we come to what my mother used to call bad words.

I’m not a prudish man; forty years at sea cured me of most inhibitions. I do try not to use too much profanity or any words that might offend in my writing. I say try, because they’re not my words, I’m just copying down what my characters say. And some of them, well, let’s just say they are not all paragons of virtue.

Now, I guess that might sound like a cop-out, blaming a spurious voice in my head for any bad language in my books.

Maybe it is. I do have to edit some of their speech and attitudes. But there are times when a well-placed, unexpected word can really get your point across. If used sparingly, they have the power to shock. Particularly in times of high stress for the character.

Ultimately, no matter what the word is, it all comes down to realism; these words exist and have their place in life and conversation. So we should use them all, without fear or favour.

What do you think about this week’s subject?

Let me know by leaving me a comment.

While you’re here, please click the InLinkz link to check out what my fellow writers have to say about this week’s topic.

I’ll be back with another post on Thursday. See you then. Meanwhile, have a great week.

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