Don't Bulk It Up

Tip #1: VOCABULARY VS. FLOW - GET RID OF BULKINESS IN YOUR SENTENCES!

A lot of authors with try to use big words in their novels. [Who knows...maybe they're trying to impress someone?] But here's a hint: IT RUINS THE FLOW! [Unless you're like some Henry McCormac type...in that case, prodigy on].

Here's a sentence:

I drank from the crystal stream which mollified my throat and hand.

[I stole this from a friend's story].

Can you see something wrong? Look at the word MOLLIFIED. Now, maybe you're the kind of person who throws "mollified" around in the vernacular. However, if you're reading this, then you're not. One of Stephen King's tips from On Writing was to take your current vocabulary and use it. Don't try to bulk it up on steroids to make your writing sound more elegant or something, because when you try to shove random words in there, it's ANYTHING BUT elegant.

Do you see how the flow kind of chops off with "mollified"? It KILLS the sentence. Try to avoid "bulking up sentences." Whatever comes to mind first, write it. Don't spend a lot of time trying to find "the perfect word" or say "emolument when you mean tip" (King 117). Say what you mean; it creates a tighter bond between you and the reader than when you try to bulk it up, because then we all have to grab a dictionary or ignore it, and that's just a wasted word.

And if you have to look something up in the dictionary to use, DON'T USE IT! YOU PROBABLY DON'T WANT IT! IT'S JUST BULK!

In case you're wondering, I just coined the term "bulk it up." Pretty handy.

SO THAT'S TIP #1!