Stephen King’s On Writing is one of the best how-to books I’ve ever read. It came out 15 years ago but I still haul it out every few years and give it another skim. Like his work or not, he’s one of the most successful people who ever put fingertips to keyboard. It’s worth knowing what he has to say about the craft.Â
In a tweet this week, he reminded us of a piece of advice he gave in On Writing.Â
This is only sort of true, says me, the person who dares to oppose the advice of a man whose writing is about 765-million times more popular than my own. (That’s probably a lowball, too.)
When writers start out, they are often narrow in their field of vision. They reuse words too often and haven’t expanded their vocabularies. A thesaurus can be helpful but it has to be used properly. The wrong way is to find ten synonyms and each time you need the word, whatever it is, to paste in one of the alternates. That’s what King is referring to, I believe. The right way is to remind yourself of different ways to say the same thing, and to choose the most natural, organic ones to sprinkle in where it feels right.Â
Anytime a novelist takes a reader out of a story by using an obviously awkward or deliberately smarty-pants phrase, they’ve failed. But repetition is a story killer, too. It has to stay interesting and that means using a variety of words.Â
I tell my journalism students to bookmark the online thesaurus when they’re writing several versions of a story, so they can mix it up and make it more entertaining for the ear. Not one of them has taken that to mean, use whatever words you see there without judging if they are common or easily understood. For the 140-character universe, King’s advice needs expansion, development, extension, amplification, swelling or magnification.Â
I’d say that: amplification, swelling or magnification are in correctly used. Enlargement or broadening might be more consistent. But then, what the hell do I know.