I Have Decided To Try Everything
As I sat in my campus-long laboratory hall, I took a deep breath in and let it out slowly.
It's been a strenuous long hours of practical class of running here and there for specimens and chemicals.
Everybody needed to rush through their experimental report to submit it before the set time elapsed.
While I was trying to unwind, my mind wandered away.
I started thinking why it's hard to have a good narrative voice. And why it's hard to use good words.
I'm always using our everyday language.
At first, I thought it was the best, I thought my readers would understand me at a glance.
But nope, my narrative voice makes the whole thing plain, like a boring newspaper.
Sometimes I find it difficult to pass the message in my mind.
I want to say this, but why can't I write it the way I want to say it?!
Sometimes I feel like crying after reading my drafts.
I want to take the next step. But will I have the time?
So many academic assignments and materials to read!
My head kept spinning with different thoughts, I need to improve, my fiction and nonfiction stories need improvement, even my blog posts.
But how?
How do I find a good narrative voice and how do I choose words a bit different from my everyday words? Words that can pass the story in my heart perfectly with the right emotions and tone.
Things need to be done. I will have to take a step, out of my comfort zone…
About the narrative voice, I've decided to try everything.
That will be better because I don't think I have any preference for now, though I love it when my story is in the first-person narrative.
You know, that is just like me telling my own life story. It's a bit simple and manageable to the end.
I have tried using the second-person narrative to write a story, but it was hard. There were so many emotions and actions I wasn't able to express. I had let it rot in a draft.
I have also used the third-person narrative voice, it was kind of good but a bit difficult.
So I am going to try the first and the last one and see which I'm better at, or maybe practice to get better at both.
About the choice of words. English is only my second language. Apart from my everyday words, it's hard to use something else, something that may be different from others in some way.
I have decided to go on word hunting, with my guns and bullets. And maybe with a basket too.
I will take it step by step:
Like writing down various emotional words first—words that express happiness, sadness, excitement, hatred, and annoyance. Like twenty of them each.
Then the description words like walking slowly, laughing uncontrollably, etc.
Also sensory words like perceived, listen, sees, smells, etc.
Finding other words to replace these frequently used words is necessary because I want to improve.
I'm a science student, and speaking good English is not always our priority, unlike the arts students.
So I will need to learn like an art student to improve my stories and my blogging life.
I now love Hive, and I'm ready to work for it. Who knows, I may become a good writer tomorrow. There's always a space for improvement.
I will stop here for today, we will read again when I start my word hunting.
If you have read to the end, thank you so much for your time, and support.
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Perhaps narrative voice isn't appropriate for this particular context. Writing for science is part of writing for academics, and academics is notorious for jargon and inscrutability of language. It's why it takes 2 hours to read something which should take 15 minutes.
We're used to thinking about writing as something done for short stories, novels, and non-fiction books. Narrative voice is expected in those works.
However, there's another form of writing where plain language not only rules but is vital. This is copywriting, the form of writing used to persuade readers to take an action you want them to take. Persuasive writing is sometimes used to describe copywriting.
Most examples of copywriting come from the world of marketing and advertising, because the people selling their goods and services want people to buy them. Other examples of copywriting include requests for charitable donations and election campaigning. Copywriting is conversational writing, and when we have conversations with most people we're not using technical jargon or buzzwords. If we use those words, people will know if we're being sincere or trying to pull the wool over their eyes.
I mention copywriting because although it can include narrative language (because the writer is telling a story whose purpose is to get readers to act), the most successful copywriting is done using plain language, the language of the people. Most people don't care about fancy words or language used only by a small number of people. Clarity is more important than how words look.
More important than the words we use are the ideas we want to communicate to readers. No matter what kind of words we use, if readers have to scratch their heads to ask what they just read, then we failed as writers because we weren't able to get our message across.
It's been said that to become better writers we need to read more. More reading exposes us to not just more ideas but also to a larger selection of words and language. After a while, thanks to all that reading, that language becomes part of us. Then we can have it available to us for when we need to write.
Use the words you need to use, and make sure the people you want to read them can read and understand them. After a while, the sophistication of the language can take care of itself. Then you'll know when it's OK to use jargon and when the simple words are enough.
I understand using plain words for clarity, especially in stuff like copywriting.
But sometimes I feel like I'm using these words too much, and sometimes I feel like there's a better word I should have used for a proper understanding. Like there may be things you want to say, but you just don't know how to say it so people will understand you, yeah.
So I thought the issue must have been from having a limited knowledge of simple good words, or maybe lack of a good writing voice.
Sometimes things we want to say had been said already by other people. Some of those people said it better than others. It goes back to reading, and the more we read the better we write (and speak).
Simple language is limited by the number of words available to it. That's not a criticism about simple language; it's just a fact about it. So we need alternative words to supplement simple language.
Try this: just write whatever you need to write so that it's out there. See what's repeated, then find an alternative word for it. Repetition is OK and sometimes necessary, but we need to space it out.
If you have a favorite writer (or even if you don't), see how that writer uses language. If it's language which reaches you, use it and make it your own. Television and movies are also good for this purpose, especially if you've already seen what's being shown.
At the moment it seems like a problem big enough to have you worried. We all go through that occasionally, whether we're learning a new language or we're award-winning writers like J. K. Rowling. With enough practice, we'll find ourselves writing in what feels like an inspired manner. Then the gaps between moments of lack of words become greater and greater.
You'll figure it out soon enough, and then it will click for you.
Thank you very much.
It was just right I published this post, now I have a better understanding of all these and also have a solution to it.
I will pay close attention to words construction while reading, it will surely help.
Thank you once again🥰, I have learned something today.
You're welcome! I'm glad I could help. As long as we can breathe, our education continues. The truly fun stuff to learn happens when we begin to learn the things we were never taught in school. Then we begin to figure things out.
@phyna Let me tell you that it happens to me very often what you talk about in this post and that is that sometimes what we want to say has already been said by other people and it is not bad since some of these guys had better things to say than others. Back to reading, the more you read, the better you will write (and speak). I recommend that you simply write down what you need to say so that it is easy to understand and see what is repeated and look for alternative words, although repetition is fine and sometimes necessary, but it is better to keep your distance and be yourself.
Thank you so much.
At a point I was stucked with this feeling that I'm not good with words.
Reading will be of great help, and I will do just that.
Thank you for your time and concerns.