: Re: Using big words without sounding like a thesaurus junkie I have a problem; my natural writing style is very high-brow. It often utilizes complex, flowery language. Much of the time, however,

@Pierce369

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First, write for yourself and your characters. If they have a more flowery way of speaking and thinking, embrace your vocabulary. If the words are natural to the situation, why worry?

I volunteered for a literacy program years ago and we were taught how to assess writing for the illiterate and how best to present it. If a work had short sentences and monosyllabic words, it could probably be read by a literacy student whose reading level is somewhere around grade five.

My current work proudly fails that test. I have sentences of varying lengths and am not afraid to use polysyllabic words when appropriate. I have several characters who think and speak more poetically than others and, while my overall style strives for clarity, I know that my diction will not strain most readers.

There are times when I am reading and encounter a perfect sentence or paragraph and must savour it. Had the author fretted about diction, it would have been much less. Christopher Fry sometimes launches into imagery that just stops me cold - must reread it and enjoy the play of words that only seem to tumble, yet shine.

Unless you are writing a children’s book or something for young adults, just write as comes naturally to you.

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