Words are
important. As an adversary of mine once noted, “Words mean things.”
Unfortunately, the necessity of a reasonable vocabulary didn't quite register
with me right out of high school. My utterances were blue-collar
speak, mimicking the likes of Vinnie Barbarino (Welcome Back Kotter –“What?
Wier?”), and Joey Tribbiani (Friends – “How you dooin’?”).
Yep. I sounded just like that, until I hit my early-twenties
where I was introduced to another class of people. Executives. I had a blue
collar job in a white collar environment. I wore a shirt and tie under a suit
or jacket, and had face-to face contact with my betters on a daily bases. I
began to realize how my intercourse (minds out of the gutter, please) differed
from the people who had a direct bearing on my paycheck. I emulated their
speech; a word here, a pronunciation there, and within a couple years I overcame
my blue-collar dialect and no longer sounded like a character in The Lords of Flatbush, unless I wanted to revisit it and
called it back. I regarded it as an accent, something I could turn on and off; like an actor
or a speech coach. (Please note: My reference to a movie and two TV
shows based in New York, in no way suggests that I think New Yorkers have a
funny way of speaking. My wife is from New York. Although I must admit, I take great
enjoyment from making fun of her accent. It usually starts whenever she says
the word “ball.” It comes out something like “bawl,” but with a long 'O' sound, and to be honest, I’m not
sure I can even spell it phonetically. And after she reads this,
I’m sure to have a date with the couch tonight.)
But I digress.
When I started writing, my new vocabulary became
more than a way of just communicating with others on a verbal level. It became
a tool, much like the computer I use to cobble words into a story. Now I've
reached yet another plateau in the vein of vocabulary; the difference that using
the right word can make. And therein, lay an example.
By the “right” word, do I mean the word opposite of
left? Or do I mean the correct word? Or
the proper word? The exact word that will impart the emotion
or mood or intent, of the action or scene, or character’s attitude?
Wow! So much power!
This topic found its way to me last night while I
was brain-working though a scene in the novel I’m currently hammering out. It
involves, a smile; a simple, non-verbal communication that a writer must convey
using the mechanical devices at his disposal.
Words.
Depending on the context of the occurrence, think
about what a smile can mean. The variations can be both a noun or a verb: smile,
smirk, grin, sneer; there are probably more, should I wish to consult a
thesaurus. They convey emotion and attitude, but I am
working with the word, “smile,” in this case, used as a noun, and pretty
generic by itself. I want to convey a mischievous attitude in a setting of
admonishment and require an adjective to enhance the noun, “smile.” Scene description: Hanna is being chewed out by her boss. It is a serious situation to him, but amusing to her, yet she must respect the severity of the event and the authority of her boss. Here
is the sentence. What adjective would you use?
Hanna suppressed a
(insert adjective here) smile. “Small target,” she said. “It was a tough shot.”
Initially, I used the adjective “tiny” to suggest
she was trying to refrain from angering her boss further by making light of his
scolding, but it wasn't working. So I picked another that works so much better. I used the word, "impish."
Have a better one?
If I like the word you suggest better than
the one I used, I will use it in the novel with a nod to you on the Acknowledgements
page. In the case of multiple suggestions of the same word, I will acknowledge
the person who suggests it first (Comments are date-time stamped. Employees of
Intrigue Publishing and affiliates as well as immediate family and household
members are not eligible.) That should cover the legal-eagle stuff.
If this
proves to work well, I will make this same offer whenever I am in search of … the
“right” word.
Some deal, huh? No money, but a lot of fun.
So I suppose the point to this rambling is, if you
want to right (I mean write), invest in words. They are beautiful, they are
unique in and of themselves, and they are your tools—same as a hammer to a
carpenter, a semi-automatic pistol to a police officer, or an automobile to a
chauffeur.
Ya can’t write without ‘em.
Best Regards,
DB
Illustration used with permission from Debbie Ridpath Ohi at Inkygirl.com
On occasion, I think about those
new folks in our country who have to negotiate the English language, and wonder
if they experience the same confusion and bewilderment as I did in my early school years. 
