I guess most people has this impression that if you are a writer, you're pretty good with words. Many writers would agree when I say there are a lot of times friends and peers would come and ask, "Ano synonym sang [insert flowery word here]? (What is the synonym of [insert flowery word here]?)"
I personally don't believe that in order for one to be a good writer, he has to be well versed with deep words. Oh, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that being a word-expert is wrong. If that is the case, there is no point in studying words, words and more words. My point is, being a word-expert doesn't necessarily equal to good writer.
The awesomeness of a writer is, for me, measured in how well he/she combines words to make equally awesome sentences. You don't have to be a genius to understand what I mean. What's the point of being a word-expert if what you say doesn't even make any sense?
I like to make this analogy about preparing a meal. Words are the ingredients and literary pieces are the meal. In order for your meal to be delicious, you have to carefully mix all the ingredients. Not too much salt, not too little pepper. That's how it is with writing. You have to carefully combine all the "ingredients", your thoughts in the form of words, so that what comes out is a wonderful piece of art.
To summarize: Though it's good if you are, you don't have to be well versed in flowery words to be a good writer. It's what you do with words that matter. I find it very impressive how people can use boring, overused words in creating fine works of art in literary form. It's even more challenging to do so, because to the untrained eye of the casual reader, flowery words are enough to impress him. But for an outstanding writer to use ordinary words in making his masterpiece and impress the casual reader, well that feat deserves a lot praises.
But that is all according to me. I could think of at least three people who would disagree with me, who believe the contrary of what I said.
Rage and Love,
Kennan.
Added you to my blog roll AND followed you. :)
ReplyDeleteWell, in a way I agree with what you are saying. However, it depends on what kind of literature you are working on and who is reading.
ReplyDeleteIn a Marxist perspective, this is very applicable since it is something that must be easily grasped by the masses. I'm not trying to bash the masses here, but you have to agree with me that some people are just not as smart as others.
However, in a formalist perspective, it would be totally different. In order for a writer to create great literary works, he or she must use words that are not used everyday. Using boring and overused words is sacrilege to formalists. Of course, sentence construction is another thing and you've mentioned that as well.
Anyway, I guess it would all depend on the readers. Most of today's readers are not really formalist so the writing style that you mentioned will work out great in my opinion.