[Caelum's Scrapbook] Use Your Words.

[Caelum]

Both of ya’ll’s comments were far more “deep than mine”. You notice I failed to comment at all other than READ THIS RANDOM WEIRD THING I AM. I do largely agree with you both, however. Now for our comedic relief – a conversation held via gchat this morning. her: ACT V bitches! almost there! me: high five! her: I encountered the cutest thing ever yesterday. we work with this girl in china, who's name is xi. which is pronounced shee. but her nickname among english speakers is eleven. me: lol her: I was like, amazing. me: I love it. I literally laughed out loud. her: I know right?? I was so confused by all the emails that i went into my boss, like, is this woman's name actually eleven? and he was like, no, here, lemme explain. me: haha. her: but her business card says eleven! me: "We're assigning numbers to our employees now. You're twenty-nine." her: Yeah, basically. me: "What, we're cylons now?" her: bwahahaha. "This whole floor, you're all Twenty-nine." me: "Of a sudden I get how Anders felt." her: Aaaaaaanders. Sam "Boom Boom Biceps" Anders. I miss his arms. me: seriously. her: they were some good arms. me: god yes. her: ::snuggles the memory:: me: should probably get back to the act. I mean, soon. Not right this minute.

[Caelum]

Your audience is smarter than you imagine. - Chuck Palahniuk A brief note on dumbing down. Mr. Palahniuk is right. Your audience (reader, viewer, correspondent) is smarter than you imagine. It is a common misconception that they are not. The fear that the message you are attempting to convey will not be received, be it direct, indirect, wrapped in modes and nuances, will trip you up every time. A writer must trust their readers to "get" both what it is written in their lines and between them. The majority of successful young adult novels are those which have not attempted to dumb anything down for the middle to high school age bracket. I have personally been told that an article that I wrote for Mizahar was convoluted. It was incredibly direct; however, I made use of an appropriately higher vocabulary due to the nature and intent of the article itself. We have a wide range of age and formal education in our player base in addition to having a number of players for whom English is not their first language. It is to be expected that you will come across words you don't know the meaning of or necessarily comprehend how it works in the context offered. When that happens to me, I look the word up in the dictionary and am generally pleased to have learned something new. It isn't snobby or complex to use a big/rare/high word when the word is the exact right one. It's sound writing. Metaphor, motif, linguistic ambiance and those noted silences in the midst of dialogue cannot be dismissed out of fear your reader will not understand. To do so would be to diminish the art as well as to display your lack of respect for the comprehensive abilities of your readers. Bottom line? Don't let anyone tell you you're trying too hard. There is no such thing in writing. Yes, simplify, simplify, simplify; but don't mistake the message. Thoreau wasn't saying dumb it down. He was saying make it clear.

[Tabarnac]

Working in the public library in a state with horrible literacy statistics has taught me a lot, and one of the things about acquiring vocabulary? You have to read words you don't know. If you look and "good" picturebooks, they'll have a word or three in there that might not be the most obvious choice, but it's often the right choice, and it's a word that a child might not know, but they might understand by context, or stop mommy or daddy (I hope to God their parents are reading to them) and ask what it means. Like when I was pre-literate and had apparently memorized entire stories out of my books because I made my dad read them to me over and over and over again when my parents made the hand-off and Mom went to work the graveyard shift at the hospital. He figured this out when he would try to skip paragraphs, the lines, then words. I caught him 99.9% of the time apparently. Anyway, kids are sponges, and they acquire vocabulary. But adults can too. And I get when they say to dumb down your writing to a 5th grade reading level or whatever... For some things it's appropriate. They do it with many newspapers because many adult Americans read at a sub-high school level. Which is frightening. But if you're writing anything with pretensions to literature, you should be rocking out with your vocabulary. Words are awesome! Find the right ones. I'm suddenly reminded of a scene from Girl, Interrupted where using the "wrong" word is actually the character using the "right" one without knowing it... Susanna: I'm ambivalent. In fact that's my new favorite word. Dr. Wick: Do you know what that means, ambivalence? Susanna: I don't care. Dr. Wick: If it's your favorite word, I would've thought you would... Susanna: It *means* I don't care. That's what it means. Dr. Wick: On the contrary, Susanna. Ambivalence suggests strong feelings... in opposition. The prefix, as in "ambidextrous," means "both." The rest of it, in Latin, means "vigor." The word suggests that you are torn... between two opposing courses of action. Susanna: Will I stay or will I go? Dr. Wick: Am I sane... or, am I crazy? Susanna: Those aren't courses of action. Dr. Wick: They can be, dear - for some. Susanna: Well, then - it's the wrong word. Dr. Wick: No. I think it's perfect. See? I love words.

[Seven Xu]

I always find it exciting to be reading a book and tumblr tumble on a word I didn't know before. It's like a little discovery, something new.

Also I enjoy the film Girl, Interrupted.

(I seriously spell tumble, tumblr, every single time.)

/end contribution

[Quasar]

You have no idea how much I use that kindle dictionary feature. It's awesome, you just have to click the word and bam, it's there. And I get where you're coming from, I used to eat words for breakfast before I lost access to a decent English library. My brother used to get so annoyed at me when we were kids for saying a bunch of stuff you would only see in writing rather than in regular conversation. What can I say, I read more than I talked. Well, now my vocabulary is deplorable. Mizahar is helpin' me catch up, though XD. You really remember a word once you use it in writing.

[Caelum]

This is what breaks my heart. Yesterday, my husband had his handgun out. He was sitting at the table cleaning it. It probably hasn’t been out of the closet since sometime last year. We got our rescue puppy this past January. When we first brought Dee home, she was skittish and nervous of new people; but at this point she is a pretty well-adjusted puppy and loves everyone. Needless to say, we were astonished when Dee noticed the gun on the table and flipped out. Her freak out was not in an aggressive manner, but in a terrified, whimpering and violently shaking fashion. She ran to where I was seated on the couch and attempted to crawl into my lap and hide, quivering and whining and hiding her face under my arm. Dan immediately put the gun away and I snuggled Dee. It took Dee only the time to see for herself that Dan was no longer holding the gun to “forgive” him and go up to him for some love. He felt awful even though he hadn’t done anything wrong. I think I saw red for the rest of the afternoon while imagining what a previous owner must have done to my dog for her to have that reaction.

[Paragon]

My previous dog, who has sadly passed now, was a rescue dog too. She was a Border Collie x Springer Spaniel, and whenever my Mum used to go to put her rubber gloves on for cleaning, she would literally bolt from the room and cower in a corner. Figure that one out?

[Laszlo]

Poor dogs. This is the beauty of it though. Whatever those dogs went through, it's over now, and they have great new owners who love them to death and would never hurt them. You get the pleasure of rehabilitating these dogs, being that love and support they didn't have before and will never lose again, and helping them trust humans again. It can only get better from here.

[Caelum]

I have so many feelings, ya’ll. And having so many feelings is annoying. I don’t believe ones emotions should be denied. While they may occasionally be irrational, over blown or obstructing, that does not diminish the fact of their existence or their validity. That is not to say that I’m encouraging illogical actions based on your emotions. Emotions, feelings, not enough, the so called wrong ones, too many or God knows what are a part of who we are. Often your feelings have to be reined in, acknowledged and defined so as to root out the heart of an issue, to reconcile with others, with situations and circumstances, and even with yourself. And I’ve had a lot of bloody feelings lately. This is for a multitude of reasons, none of which I’m particularly inclined to outline here. Several months ago I was not handling these feelings well and even went so far as to admit to a friend that I felt I had no right to them. Of course, that was ridiculous. Obviously I have a right to my emotions regardless of whether or not someone else considers me to. That absolutely makes my feelings valid. They are mine and I am having them. How much more valid does it get? It does not, however, mean they should not be examined for potential flaws before actions are taken or words are said. My mother has told me a thousand times that you have to lie down to be used as a doormat. Well, I believe you shouldn’t lie down for yourself either. That’s the first person you should be certain to stand up for and you shouldn't allow your emotions to walk all over you and then spit you out like watermelon seeds. All of that said, I think I’m going to write this silly little thing later. I’ve seen a few others do similar things on Mizahar. A fellow writer friend and I, when we were much younger, used to do it with fair regularity. Essentially, we would throw a few of our characters into a room together with us and tell what happens. I think I’ll do it with my Mizahar characters for kicks and maybe that will stir back up my writing juices. (Sometimes I like to think of them as cocktails.) - k.

[Caelum]

Academic Coach Taylor has some advice for you. No, really.