a question for the writers among us

[Bertha Venation]

Do you feel that using a thesaurus cheapens your work to the point where you just say "fuck it" and give up?

I have a LOUSY vocabulary and go to the thesaurus way too many times. I'm starting to feel that if I can't pull the precise word out of my brain when I need it, I shouldn't call myself a writer.

Do you frequently use a thesaurus?

[Robb]

1. I use one quite a bit.

Usually I feel like it's more of a memory jogging device, and justify it because I've got too much of my brain working on the complexities of the content to remember the word that more accurately conveys what I want. :shrug:

[supernova]

2. Rarely use the Thesaurus

except for help with crossword puzzles or playing scrabble.

If you want a bigger vocab, just read a lot. But read all kinds literature, fine lit as well as comic books.

[Bertha Venation]

15. I read incessantly -- every chance I get.

But, I confess: I have read only one new book -- a book I hadn't previously read -- in about six months. I don't know why. Laziness, I guess. I started three political books, but just couldn't seem to get into them. Sadly, I couldn't even concentrate on Bushwhacked.

I just got two books from my sisters for my birthday: The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat by Dr. Oliver Sacks, and More Latin for the Illiterati. I'll start The Man this weekend. Maybe it'll jump start me out of my reading doldrums.

[supernova]

20. Just finished Perfume

Perfume: The Story of Murderer by Patrick Suskind. Even translated from the original German, there is an excellent vocabulary. It's a very aromatically descriptive piece. But it is a gruesome tale.

I'm now into William Saroyan, The Time of Your Life. He's an author we tend to forget about now, which is sad. His writing is wonderfully vivid and full of life. TTYL won the Pulitzer.

I have a hard time with political books. Sometimes the writing leaves me flat, even if I agree with the author.

We subscribed to Reader's Digest for a long time, decades, and I loved doing the "It Pays to Enrich Your Wordpower" quizzes. :D

[ludwigb]

36. Perfume

was a cool book.

[ixion]

3. I have been writing for nearly 20 years

and I've yet to buy a thesaurus. I think the best way to improve your vocabulary is to read incessantly.

[Brucey]

4. What's the difference where you get a word, so long as

it's the right word.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

5. Yeah, but sparingly. Inarticulacy has its place in literature, y'know.

Like, duh.

[Shanty Oilish]

6. Sure -- nothing to be ashamed about

...is it?

Problem is, I lose my train of thought in a thesaurus. Out of writing mode and into reading mode, brain cells go off in every direction. So mostly when I write I just mark a word and continue, and later when I'm in an editing mood I fix it.

[soleft]

7. Use it all the time

My bosses's wife is a life coach and she made up these daily intention cards, so she gave me a set and today's card says I let go of the "should haves" and "what if's"

So screw that, I shouldn't call myself a writer if I use a thesaurus.

If you write your write, regardless of what tools you use.

What do you write?

[Bertha Venation]

16. essays that no one reads but me, and

lots of LTTEs, many of which are never mailed, and tons of journal entries that remain as saved emails in the drafts folder, and, like so many people, I'm working piecemeal on a novel that'll probably never be published. (It's rather an homage to Louise Fitzhugh.)

[soleft]

28. wasn't familiar with that name so I looked her up on Google

Found this site, do you know what she died of? I had of course heard of Harriet the Spy, what a terrible shame about her novel. I'm working on something now I'm sure my agent will not be overjoyed to send out.

http://www.purple-socks.com/

[Bertha Venation]

32. shame about her novel?

Can you give me Cliff Notes on this? I don't know what's a "shame" & haven't time to review the site for it . . . ???

You have an agent. Cool. You're published?

Edit: she died of a brain aneyeursim (sp?), and she died less than a month before my mother did.

[soleft]

37. It was mentioned on the website I posted

It says she wrote an unpublished novel called Amelia about two adolescent girls who fall in love but her agent refused to submit it and that it has since been lost. That's criminal.

I write screenplays, sold an option on one, that's it so far.

[Bertha Venation]

38. Ah. Okay

well, I didn't have time to browse the site to learn that, but I thank you for the reply. A crying shame, yes, but hardly surprising.

Best of luck on your career. I hope to see your name in lights someday.

[SoCalDem]

8. rarely

:).. I am lazy :)

[bif]

9. I use one occaisionally

But more for assignments when I have to name a new product. It's better to speak in your own voice. If you overuse the Thesaurus you canusually tell.

[SOteric]

10. Define frequently.

I write. I've been gifted with an exceptional vocabulary, and I go to the dictionary and the thesaurus often. Especially in those instances where there's a word on the tip of my tongue. My mind links words with other words, often owing to a linguistic association in Latin or Italian. Seeing similar words in a thesaurus can frequently jar the trapped word loose.

I consider it as important a tool as is a dictionary. Too heavy a reliance on either is likely indicative of a need for improvement somewhere, but shouldn't be interpretted as a condemnation of one's ability to write.

[Bertha Venation]

18. you've summed up very well what many others have said

and I appreciate it. Thanks to you and to everyone for the advice. I appreciate it all, very much!

[Interrobang]

30. I agree with you there, SOteric.

I'm a (currently unemployed although usually) working professional writer with a few publications to my credit besides, and I go to the thesaurus every so often. More often I just use Word's "Synonyms" function, especially if I'm looking to make an alliteration ("Ok, I need a word that means '---' and starts with an 'a'.") or if I've accidentally used the same word too many times too close together and can't think of another word right then.

I *don't* see periodically turning to a thesaurus as an indictment of vocabulary size, as I can probably go best two falls out of three against almost anyone in terms of the size of my working vocabulary, at least. ;-)

[RebelOne]

11. I'm a copy editor and frequently use a thesaurus.

Sometimes I just can't think of the right word to describe something, so a thesaurus is a valuable tool for me.

[seventhson]

12. It is the BEST - Roget's old fasioned one by concept

Couldn't write without it!

Not well anyway

I love it. Got mine at an old bookstore used

[wysimdnwyg]

13. Occasionally

Sometimes I just can't think of the word that best describes what I'm trying to say. I'll then use the thesaurus, but I won't look up a word in the dictionary. I figure if I don't already know what the word means, I shouldn't use it.

And there's a difference between using a thesaurus to pick out the right word and using it to just find a different way of saying something.

[eyesroll]

14. I occasionally go to the online thesaurus

...more often for headlines than for body copy. I write for a specialized industry (janitorial), and there are only so many synonyms, and a lot of industry jargon. Perhaps there is a difference between business and creative writing with regard to vocabulary. I find I don't have to vary mine much for the former.

Don't feel bad about going to a thesaurus -- that what it's there for. There are more than 600,000 words in the English language, and nobody can know all of them. I do feel (in my case) that using reference material can derail my train of thought. I sometimes go back, when I'm editing, if I feel my original word or phrase doesn't work, or has been overused.

[ScreamingMeemie]

17. I use one all the time. No cheapness there. It's cheap in my opinion

when it's stale and overused. :hi:

[HEyHEY]

19. Hardly ever

But I write for a newspaper so I write at a grade seven level. Also, big words don't make good writing. Look at guys like Hunter Thompson - he doesn't use a lot of vocab and he's a well-respected writer.

And crazy man

[BurtWorm]

21. There's an art and a science to using a thesaurus

that involve using a dictionary with it. Some hack writers I've had the pleasure of editing (seriously!) who don't do that make some incredibly hilarious mistakes.

One guy in particular who used to write for detective magazines I edited came up with some amazing "synonyms." Like "a sated statement," as in "The witness gave a sated statement to the police." It took some brainwork for me to figure out that he wasn't talking about a statement that made the witness feel satisifed. For some reason he had decided that "a full statement" was just not interesting enough an expression and had lazily plucked "sated" from the entries under "full" in his thesaurus.

His most bizarre thesaurus-ism: He wanted to say something like "the hounds of justice bayed" to give a purplish sense of drama in the story, but for some reason he thought that was too cliched, so he turned that idea into "the cockapoos of justice yipped."

Let this be a lesson to us all: alcohol and thesauruses do not mix!

[Melsky]

22. I like that

The cockapoos of justice yipped

That's hilarious. I'll be borrowing that one.

There used to be a feature in National Lampoon called Lines from the Slushpile that had funny lines from unsolicited manuscripts.

[BurtWorm]

24. We editors had that phrase taped to our walls!

We gave him the pen-name "CP Justyce." ;)

[GreenPartyVoter]

33. Yipping cockapoos of justice: Bush's idea of a

thorough J o D investigation. *lol*

[GreenPartyVoter]

23. Use it for variety, but not to look "smart"

If you've used the word blue six times on one page, yes, get out the thesaurus and switch some of them to azure, turquoise, what-have-you.

If you start tacking on three adjectives to describe the blueness of the blue, then drop the thesaurus.

Also, I write while I am online, so I am recommending the website called Visual Thesaurus. Look it up. It's rathe helpful, if a bit hard to read. *l*

[SoCalDem]

25. I use the rhyming website sometimes.. I write silly insulting poems

to my bowlers who do very poorly.. I also give them booby prizes, so it's good natured, but sometimes I need help with a rhyme, since I use their team names and things that were pertinent to our season.. I make them stand up in our meeting and claim their prize.. (usually a toddler bowling set) or something equally silly..

[GreenPartyVoter]

34. A rhyming website? *g*

Too cool. But I write book reviews and romantic fiction. May never have the opportunity to rhyme anything. *sniffling*

[SoCalDem]

35. Here's the link.. It's also a dictionary, thesaurus..the works

http://www.rhymezone.com/

[oneighty]

26. Writing can only be done

when the writer has something to say. A curse on correctness. Full speed ahead!

180. Word butcher extraordinary.

Ed

27. very rarely use a thesaurus when writing

but I do find it kind of useful to just glance through it on occasion when not writing, just to get new words for things simmering around in my unconscious.
Also "analogical" dictionaries are kind of interesting for the same thing. I have one for French that traces roots of words.

[Parrcrow]

29. I don't feel like I use it too often

There is absolutely nothing wrong with using one. Do not for one second think that there is any stigma attached.

[Chovexani]

31. Mine is my best friend.

My little Roget's is worn to the point that I probably need to replace it. I read incessantly myself, so I pick up new words a lot, but sometimes when I write I'm looking for just the right word and can't decide what to choose from. Mr. Thesaurus helps a lot with that. :)

It also helps me in a different way. I'm a bit of an adverb and adjective whore and if I find myself going to the thesaurus too much to look up new ones to use, I know it's time to put it away and find another way to convey what I'm trying to say. It's kinda like a nicotine patch. ;)

Also? With the stuff I write, sometimes the thesaurus can't help. It's hard to find synonyms for "sorcerer", "Drow", etc. :)

--C.

[radwriter0555]

39. I LOVE words... I LOVE the thesaurus. I LOVE discerning the origins of

words in particular.

I have a good friend, the crazy romanian chick who is a language scholar (6 languages, professor of film and biology and just accepted into the phd program at USC to teach film, and who's best friend is a doctorate research scientist at Harvard) with whom I do word games;

We'll come across a word and feel DRIVEN to discern its origins in history; whether it's latin, germanic, etc; we'll call each other at any time of the day or night with the strangest, most obscure or complex words. We also have to discover its related usages and words stemming from.

Just a strange game.

[jpgray]

40. Yes, it is too unnatural--read some grandiloquent bilge instead.

That can increase the vocabulary quite quickly.

[WilliamPitt]

41. I use one now and again

The good part about writing alot is that it firms up your vocabulary. The more you write, the more words you'll have in your arsenal, and the less often the book will come off the shelf.

Just keep digging.

[Bossy Monkey]

42. Use it if you need it; don't worry about it

I haven't needed a thesaurus heretofore, but having passed 40 I find that my memory is for shit most of the time. There's no shame using a thesaurus, or a dictionary, or whatever. That's what they're for. The part that makes you a writer is what you do with the words, not where you get them.