Tips Corner

Use of synonyms and extensive vocabulary.

Using synonyms and extensive vocabulary is really important when you are busy writing your story! You might not notice using the same words over and over again, but if you re-read your story after writing it, you might n̶o̶t̶i̶c̶e̶ see it. ;)

Readers often stop reading stories when the writing is clunky. This can be caused by repetitiveness and over-explanation of actions. For instance, reading this: "Jack smiled at her, he turned around to walk over to his locker to put his coat away. She walked over to him, and as he turned around, he smiled." in our opinion, really hard and annoying to read since the word "to" is used many times. Besides that, you don't need to describe every movement a character makes. This will make your story long-winded.

So how do you tackle this?

First things first, let's say you've finished writing your story and you're scanning it for grammar, spelling, or vocabulary mistakes. Your eyes may be pulled towards the use of the same words repeatedly in one sentence. Using different words may be everything except for easy, especially when you're not a native English speaker, but no worries! We got you.

There are a couple of things you can do.

1. Check if you can re-phrase your sentence! Doing this may result in deleting words and those might include the word you want to change.

For example: "Jack grabbed his coat from the coat rack, walked into the kitchen to give his mother a hug, walked back towards the door, and grabbed his hat from the hat rack." Can be transformed into: "Jack grabbed his coat and his hat from the coat rack, walked into the kitchen to hug his mother, and then walked out of the house."

This can be difficult! If you're having trouble changing the word order, think of what you want to say and rewrite the sentence!
-> "Jack hugged his mother, grabbed his briefcase, and went on his way to his work."

2. Another thing you can do is search for synonyms on the internet. This may sound really easy, but using synonyms often changes the structure of your sentence.
For instance: "But using synonyms changes the word order often." -> "But using synonyms often changes the structure of your sentence."

If you're searching for synonyms, you might find that words don't fit in your old sentence, or you just can't find a good synonym to finish it. But you can easily help yourself with re-writing the sentence.

We couldn't find a synonym to end this with: "You might find that fitting the words into your old sentence .." So we've rewritten it to the underlined sentence above!

Looking for synonyms on the internet might be the easiest thing to do! However, sometimes words just don't have synonyms. Or they have synonyms that just don't fit your story.

3. The last thing on our list is leaving words out. You might find yourself using the same words over and over again, you've tried to re-phrase your sentence, and after searching for synonyms, you're annoyed because you can't finish your chapter like you wanted to. If so, you can delete words! Sometimes, deleting one or multiple words in a sentence can have a good impact on your story.
Take a look at this past sentence! What word(s) could we delete here to make the sentence prettier to read?

Yes indeed! Removing the word "sentence" would make it easier to read!
"Sometimes, deleting one or multiple words in a sentence can have a good impact on your story." -> "Sometimes, deleting one or multiple words can have a good impact on your story."

The second thing we want to talk about in this article is the use of extensive vocabulary. Of course this is easier if you're a native English speaker, as they inherently possess a broader vocabulary in their mother tongue compared to non-natives.

Here are some things to keep in mind about vocabulary when you're writing an English story!

- Don't use too many of the same words repeatedly. Take your time if you're in doubt about using that one word again, look up some synonyms on the internet.. etc!

- Know that you don't have to describe every movement your character makes. This makes your writing seem clunky and also lengthens your sentences with a lot of unnecessary words.

- Ensure that a story doesn't have too much purple prose and the vocabulary is in line with the audience that you're hoping to reach. Middle graders probably wouldn't use more complex words to describe things than adults do.

- Be aware of the genre you're writing in. If you're writing a romance novel, use short sweet words rather than very long aggressive words. 

- Choose more specific words to describe actions, feelings, or looks. This also helps the reader get a better insight into the situation!

Hopefully, we've helped you become better at story writing! Make sure to check out the other chapters and thank you for reading! :)

Have fun writing your stories!

Warm hugs,

The Romance Team