Some Words

I will shortly be passing the length of the longest thing I’ve ever written. This is, in itself, a very pleasant feeling, but there are aspects of it that make me nervous.

The longer the work, the more intimately aware of my own vocabulary I become. As I’ve gone on with this project, I’ve come to realize how little of my vocabulary actually makes it into my fiction. You have to be fairly comfortable with a word for it to be used. If you aren’t, it will feel awkward, and stick out on the page, making it more likely to be removed. Words that are seldom used seem to need to excuse themselves. A while back on The Valve someone commented that they noticed china Meiville using ‘recurved’ a lot.

Maybe it’s me being neurotic, but I’m starting to notice words showing up too frequently. Most recently, it’s been a fear of sounding overly equivocal. I find myself wondering how many times I’ve used ‘perhaps’ in the first 50,000 or so words. I feel that text leans toward that word too often. I’m trying not to use that particular word, as I’ve started to think of it as distasteful. Why does the narrator need a word like perhaps? He’s the narrator. He gets to say what’s what. The reader can believe him or not.

You often see writers mention Nabokov’s amazing vocabulary. It really was impressive, and every time I read or reread one of his books, I’m struck by his usage of this or that word, often ones he rescued from obsolescence. Still, even he has words that start to stick out as favorites. He’s the only author I can think of who uses the word ‘purblind,’ but once you know the word, it sticks out in his writing every time he uses it. It doesn’t help that purblind means the same thing as blind, highlighting the fact that it is used for languages sake only.

Its surprising sometimes how quickly the English language can start to feel like a cramped house.