Does anyone find that, when reading, they see a new word and instead of thinking - “oh! A new word! What’s the definition?”
You think - “…you totally used a thesaurus for that word…”
Then the author will use that word at LEAST 3 times throughout the book and it pings in your head everytime.
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I know I’m being way critical. Considering I don’t write nor am I published. And I should be grateful I learned a new word today!
But I’ve gone 33yrs without seeing “Maudlin” and now I’ve seen this used 3 times to describe the same character.
Other words occurr of course but “Maudlin” is what made me roll my eyes this morning.
And “Disgorged”
The definition is clear from the word itself but c’mon… you don’t need to use it twice in the same chapter to describe both a Carriage uploading passengers and a microwave opening up for food.
It just feels fake 😅
I love learning new words. A good writer will make it clear from context approximately what the word means. That’s how I increase my vocabulary.
I was delighted when Ann leckie wrote her Ancillary series. Many years before I had used that word in a report at work and my boss asked me what it meant. I was surprised he didn’t know because I thought it was a common word, having run across it in my reading.