A great many people who pick up the thesaurus think that the words are precisely interchangeable. I would like to disabuse you of that notion. There are shades of meaning, just as the values of blue, from the lightest to the darkest. There are now over a million words in the English language, adapted, borrowed, or stolen from dozens of other languages. Choose the precise word that best conveys your meaning to the reader. If that is a simple word, fine; yet, if it is what some might call a 'three dollar word' (back in the day, these were 50-cent words--inflation is ubiquitous) then do not shy away from it. The first Umberto Eco book I read was Foucault's Pendulum. A highly complex book that, even in translation, sent me to the dictionary more than once. I was hooked on Eco's writing after this. One thing that will make me put down a book faster than anything else is if the world is set in a Medieval European-style fantasy world and the author is writing in the contemporary vernacular. I don't mean that you have to be writing in Middle English, though that would be a nice touch, but it shouldn't sound like a 21st century narrator is telling the story. Read some Fritz Leiber for some excellent examples.
Some quotes from Stephen King's On Writing: "...I find wardrobe inventory particularly irritating; if I want to read descriptions of clothes, I can always get a J. Crew catalogue. "I think locale and texture are much more important to the reader's sense of actually being in the story than any physical description of the players. Nor do I think that physical description should be a shortcut to character. So spare me, if you please, the hero's sharply intelligent blue eyes and outthrust determined chin; likewise the heroine's arrogant cheekbones." "For me, good description usually consists of a few well-chosen details that will stand for everything else. In most cases, these details will be the first ones that come to mind." "...flashbacks, which strike me as boring and sort of corny. They always make me think of those movies from the forties and fifties where the picture gets all swimmy, the voices get all echoey, and suddenly it's sixteen months ago... but I like to start at square one... I'm an A-to-Z man; serve me the appetizer first and give me dessert if I eat my veggies."
Great topic and great advice. I write extremely complex SF stories, and I'm quite sure they are too convoluted to be appreciated by the average reader, but I kind of write them with myself as an audience, so I don't think I could have written them any other way. I take comfort in the fact that J.K. Rowling thought the same about her books before publication. She thought only nerds with an obsessive care about details would notice the intricacies of her fictional world, but there are lots of readers out there who are prepared to climb that mountain if they are only convinced by other readers that it's a worthwhile endeavour.
I think it does vary by genre. SFF readers, as you mentioned, are more inclined towards complex stories. Stephen Erikson's Malazan series is a good example of this. Very complex, but that type of reader loves it.
Fantastic video. I have a lot of complexity in my worldbuilding that factors into the plot, and I'm frankly struggling to know where to place each critical bit of info to make it easiest possible for readers. This gave me hope it's possible.
A great many people who pick up the thesaurus think that the words are precisely interchangeable. I would like to disabuse you of that notion. There are shades of meaning, just as the values of blue, from the lightest to the darkest. There are now over a million words in the English language, adapted, borrowed, or stolen from dozens of other languages. Choose the precise word that best conveys your meaning to the reader. If that is a simple word, fine; yet, if it is what some might call a 'three dollar word' (back in the day, these were 50-cent words--inflation is ubiquitous) then do not shy away from it. The first Umberto Eco book I read was Foucault's Pendulum. A highly complex book that, even in translation, sent me to the dictionary more than once. I was hooked on Eco's writing after this. One thing that will make me put down a book faster than anything else is if the world is set in a Medieval European-style fantasy world and the author is writing in the contemporary vernacular. I don't mean that you have to be writing in Middle English, though that would be a nice touch, but it shouldn't sound like a 21st century narrator is telling the story. Read some Fritz Leiber for some excellent examples.
Some quotes from Stephen King's On Writing:
"...I find wardrobe inventory particularly irritating; if I want to read descriptions of clothes, I can always get a J. Crew catalogue.
"I think locale and texture are much more important to the reader's sense of actually being in the story than any physical description of the players. Nor do I think that physical description should be a shortcut to character. So spare me, if you please, the hero's sharply intelligent blue eyes and outthrust determined chin; likewise the heroine's arrogant cheekbones."
"For me, good description usually consists of a few well-chosen details that will stand for everything else. In most cases, these details will be the first ones that come to mind."
"...flashbacks, which strike me as boring and sort of corny. They always make me think of those movies from the forties and fifties where the picture gets all swimmy, the voices get all echoey, and suddenly it's sixteen months ago... but I like to start at square one... I'm an A-to-Z man; serve me the appetizer first and give me dessert if I eat my veggies."
Great topic and great advice. I write extremely complex SF stories, and I'm quite sure they are too convoluted to be appreciated by the average reader, but I kind of write them with myself as an audience, so I don't think I could have written them any other way. I take comfort in the fact that J.K. Rowling thought the same about her books before publication. She thought only nerds with an obsessive care about details would notice the intricacies of her fictional world, but there are lots of readers out there who are prepared to climb that mountain if they are only convinced by other readers that it's a worthwhile endeavour.
I think it does vary by genre. SFF readers, as you mentioned, are more inclined towards complex stories. Stephen Erikson's Malazan series is a good example of this. Very complex, but that type of reader loves it.
Fantastic video. I have a lot of complexity in my worldbuilding that factors into the plot, and I'm frankly struggling to know where to place each critical bit of info to make it easiest possible for readers. This gave me hope it's possible.
Thanks! Yeah its tough to get worldbuilding information across sometimes