I love to read. Ever since I was a child, books have been a part of my life. My parents read to me when I was little, I read to my little brother when I was older, and much later in life, I spent whole summers filling up the bookshelf in my room with one novel after another. I still have some of those books and worn as they are, I still pick them up on occasion to revisit old friends.
Dad and I have a habit of exchanging good books we’ve read. Last week he gave one to me called River God by Wilbur Smith. “Here,” he said, “Tell me what you think of it.” I thought that was odd. Usually, the books Dad tosses my way come with a rave review and, “You have to read this!”
I finally had a chance to sit down and dig into River God. I settled into my favorite corner of the couch, tried to explain to the cat why pages should not be chewed on, and then started to read.
By page 10, I was exhausted. “But Harry,” you might ask, “How do you get exhausted from reading?” I’ll tell you.
While I’m sure Mr. Smith is an excellent novelist (after all, Stephen King said so right on the cover), the words he used were complex. Each one of them was like something out of an SAT test*. My mother never likes to wear the same outfit twice, and Mr. Smith never seems to use the same word twice. What should have been a relaxing pastime turned into a chore similar to reading the Encyclopedia Britannica for kicks and giggles.
It’s good to have an extensive vocabulary, especially for writers. Being able to describe a sunset or a door handle more than once and making it sound fresh and exciting each time requires having a large stockpile of words to choose from. But don’t go overboard. Remember your audience.
If you’re writing for the Journal of American Medicine, then fine, knock yourself out with the formal language and fancy words. When you’re writing for the average Joe (or Josephine, as the case may be), let the big words go. That doesn’t mean you have to speak down to your audience; rather, have respect for them.
River God isn’t shaping up to be my cup of tea, but I’ll probably finish it anyway. Call it curiosity or masochism; I just hate to leave a book unfinished. The only problem is that it will probably affect my writing style.
Guess I’ll have to balance it out with a good dose of Terry Pratchett.
*Student Aptitude Test – used in the
I completely agree on the subject of this post — there is a fine line between using your vocabulary appropriately and jamming enormous words down your readers’ throats.
Just an FYI — SAT doesn’t actually stand for anything anymore. It is simply the SAT Reasoning Test these days.