: The purplest prose comes from writers who rely on a thesaurus to choose synonyms, without fully understanding nuance and context. It's a bit like equipping your car with every available gadget

@Fox6458700

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The purplest prose comes from writers who rely on a thesaurus to choose synonyms, without fully understanding nuance and context. It's a bit like equipping your car with every available gadget from the local auto parts store -- the effect is rarely harmonious, and often unintentionally hilarious.

Better to read Roget in the bathroom than use it as a reference while you're writing. You'll expand your vocabulary in a nice, general way, safe from the temptation to over-accessorize your writing.

The wrong synonym creates an impersonal level of abstraction that distances you from, and subtly annoys your audience. Better to write honestly, using the words you already know, while striving still to increase your knowledge and appreciation of the language.

Careful diction creates believable characters: the naive but earnest social climber who tries to impress with a not-quite-right word choice; the persuader who uses words to orchestrate emotional, rather than intellectual agreement; the warm, likable character whose words connote wisdom gained more from experience than from formal education.

Really good writing, whether fiction or nonfiction, comes from those who are comfortably intimate with the language. The right word choice depends not only on definitions, but also fluency, emotion, rhythm, harmony, diction, and character.

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