The Depths and Heights of Big Words

You can pretend like you don't know what I'm talking about, but (assuming that you like to read) you've probably come across a lot of pretentious crap. You know the sort; you can feel, the writer straining to be great. You can feel him or her reaching for the most impressive word. The strain comes across in their writing, and, frankly, is transferred to you, the reader (we're assuming for a moment that you are not the writer of this crap). How beleaguering, like being crushed under the stultifying weight of a stifling leaden encumbrance. Was that pretentious enough? Okay, I tried; in this format it's harder to be pretentious (no one's saying I'm completely innocent of pretentiousness, mind you).

But we are NOT concerned with the reader's plight; the reader can just stop reading. The writer, on the other hand, needs to be aware if they're guilty of pretentiousness.

The first and most obvious thing is to ask for feedback. Make sure it's honest. A good friend may not actually be best; they might not tell you to your face that you're trying too hard in your writing or that your writing sounds pompous. It isn't very nice.

I know it's been said before, but bigger doesn't always mean better when it comes to words. Don't get yourself into thinking that because it's a "big" word, it's the right one. If you're writing a sentence that needs the word "pretty" then use "pretty", not "sumptuous". Sumptuous has different connotations, just like every word. You might not want to add on the connotations that some bigger words might bring with them. It's linguistic baggage if you like. You have to make sure that baggage is what you want. The idea is to be precise, not to impress anyone. The precise word may not be a large, complicated, polysyllabic, Latinate word, but a simple monosyllabic gem.

This may also seem obvious, but keep it in mind: do NOT use a word that you don't fully understand. There may be words that you've come across while reading and that come to your mind. If you don't have a complete understanding of the word, though, for the love of God, find out what it means or just use a word you know. There's nothing worse than reading a story where a word is used in a wrong way. Sometimes even looking up the word isn't enough; there are connotations to go along with dictionary denotations. Expand your vocabulary; reading a lot will give you a much better understanding of the nuances that certain words carry.

Be careful to keep to your own register. Register, in case someone doesn't know, is the level of word usage, ie from simple words to large, technical words. If your vocabulary is expansive and you have confidence that your audience will be able to enjoy your writing even with big words, then by all means use lots of words that are never used in everyday speech (like pernicious; ever heard that one spoken out loud?). But if you're best with everyday conversation containing lots of one-syllable words, then go for it. Good writing doesn't have to be in a high register. If you try to go above or below your natural register, you run into trouble. A person with a huge vocab will end up throwing in completely inappropriate and random big words and someone not comfortable with a high register will use words incorrectly.

If you stop and think, "Is this literary enough?", you may be thinking too much. You have to do what comes naturally, and don't try to impress anyone. Trust me (and you probably know it), when a writer is trying to impress you or is trying too hard, the reader can definitely tell!