The trouble with using long words…Stephen King QUOTES FOR WRITERS (and people who like quotes)
One of the really bad things you can do to your writing is to dress up the vocabulary, working for long words because you’re maybe a little bit ashamed of your short ones. This is like dressing up a household pet in evening clothes. The pet is embarrassed, and the person who committed this act of premeditated cuteness should be even more embarrassed.
Stephen King
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"Unputdownable" Miriam Stoppard
BRIDGET WHELAN writer 
Reblogged this on mira prabhu.
Thanks Mira
true!
Yep and pretty similar to George Orwell’s rules for writing “when instict fails”
1) Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
2) Never use a long word where a short one will do.
3) If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
4) Never use the passive where you can use the active.
5) Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
6) Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.
Reblogged this on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog.
Thanks Chris
Welcome, Bridget 😀
Reblogged this on Viv Drewa – The Owl Lady.
Thanks for sharing
Reblogged this on Stevie Turner and commented:
I used some medical terminology (not a lot though) in ‘A House Without Windows’ because the main character is a doctor and that’s how she would think. One reviewer complained that some of the words I was using were too long and difficult!
But there are times when long words are the right words and one of those times is when you a creating vocabulary approriate for the character which sounds like the case in your novel. Thanks for reblogging.
You’re welcome.
I think Stephen King makes a lot of sense here. I sometimes read things that include so many complex words it is difficult to understand what it being said. Shorter words are powerful and punchy.
I think it’s always worth questioning why the author uses complex vocabulary. If it’s for precision or because of a lack of an everyday alternative, or because you’re writing for a specialist readership who are comfotable with the jargon of your shared trade/profession ok, but often it’s simply to show off. (I’m beginning to sound like my mother!)
That’s absolutely true.
Yes, I think so too.
Wasn’t it Winston Churchill that said “Short words are preferable to long words, and short words that are old words are best of all”? Smart man, Mr. Churchill.
Thank you for this – haven’t come across it before. Reminded that Jonathan Swift used to read to his servants at the end of a day’s writing. If there was a word or an expression they didn’t understand he would strike it out