Using a variety of words

[EternalMothra]

Most people have the problem of using the same word excessively. When that happens, it sounds silly and a bit boring. Different words add flavor to the writing. Most of them are used to describe something, for instance:

the large beast
the large building
the large mountain

Adjectives are the words used to describe nouns. Large: adjective/beast: noun.

If you need to think up of different words, a thesaurus is recommended. Here are a few words that I found for large: gigantic, colossal, huge, towering, enormous, monsterous, massive....etc

Never use the same word too much, people become bored when they read it. Use a thesaurus, they help a lot.:)

[Seer235]

Just to add, anyone who's studied for the SAT verbal (I'm currently doing this) can use some of the words they learned there in their fiction. It'll add a lot of possible words to use there. ;)

[EternalMothra]

That's right, working with different words will help you in more subjects than writing fiction.

[Raptor]

And how! You'd be surprised at how much writing is used in the workaday world (often TOO much! :laugh:) There are memos you have no idea what action they are wanting to occur, work orders that don't define the problem clearly and SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) that run in circles.
Government agencies seem to be the worst with repeating words, even in "public" documents, like explaining what they do or how a program works. Everyone is a "client", it seems, yet they are supposedly "marketing" themselves in these type things. Instead of "reference/certification" forms, you find Collateral Statements. Duh!
They may have come up with a new word for a familiar thing but does it really work? Not for the "client", or in our case, the reader. WRITE FOR YOUR AUDIENCE! We're doing our fiction for entertainment, after all! ;)
BTW, I understand some SATs also have an optional WRITTEN part where you have to do at least a short paragraph. No multiple guess in this instance! :laugh:

[Seer235]

The written part is actually no longer optional. A persuasive essay is needed. It's no creative writing, but if you learn some advanced vocabulary writing fiction you should definetely use it, SAT reads love to see those big words. Just another way Godzilla can help you succeed in life :sly:

[Raptor]

Gee, I thought it was my "locker monster" (a Bandai of Ultra Seven's capsule monster, Miclas)! :laugh:
And you also don't have to use the same old, trite four letter words when you want to cuss. :p

[Bruticus]

And you also don't have to use the same old, trite four letter words when you want to cuss. :p

Canadians like me already know a good four-letter word that can easily replace "f***," "s***," or "damn." That word, my friends, is "snow," as you can see from the below examples:

"Snow, I'm locked out of the house!"
"Oh yeah?! Well, snow YOU, loser!"
"You are snowed to eternal snownation."

...yeah, not as effective as s***, f***, or damn, is it? :hmmm:

[Cyndi]

^LOL omg, hilariousness!

Sometimes I use "fark" in place of f***, though thanks to Battlestar Galactica I'm also saying "frack" a lot too XD

I've also used the word a** to replace "sucks". I.E. "That's ***, man!" instead of "That sucks, man!" :P


In all seriousness though, yes, I have the bad habit of using the same word over and over. I really try to do different words as I'm writing and that itself is the main cause of my writer's block much of the time. When errors like that make it to posting without me noticing until later, I feel like I just chewed glass and had it shoot out of my eyeballs.