You can’t go wrong with a word with three wyes in it (syzygy – see? Great). You can, however, go wrong with using synonyms, so here’s my advice.

A synonym is, as you doubtless already know, a word with a similar meaning to another word. Two such words are synonyms of each other. Almost every word in English has a whole raft of synonyms. To take one example at random, we find the following synonyms for red: bloodshot, bloody, blush, blushing, brick, burgundy, cardinal, carmine, cerise, cherry, claret, color, commie, coral, crimson, erubescence, fiery, glowing, inflamed, magenta, maroon, pink, reddishness, roseate, rosy, rouge, rubescence, rubicundity, rubious, ruby, ruddy, rufosity, rust, scarlet, solferino, titian, vermilion.

I’ve just culled that list from thesaurus.com to serve as an example. A thesaurus is, of course, the ultimate source of synonyms, and many people (myself included) will from time to time refer to a thesaurus whilst writing in order to find a suitable synonym. However, knowing exactly when, why and how to use synonyms (and, indeed, the thesaurus itself) to best effect can be difficult. My advice in short is this:

• Don’t use a synonym just because it’s a more complicated or longer word.
• Don’t use synonyms for variation (or to avoid repetition).
• Use a synonym when you wish to be more specific.

I’ll go through these prescriptions and proscriptions in some more detail.

Don’t use a synonym just because it’s a more complicated or longer word
This is an easy one - being more complicated than you need to be can confuse or perturb your reader; simple as that. It’s not big, it’s not particularly clever (top marks for a big vocabulary, but looking it up in a thesaurus is nothing special, and anyway, clever is knowing how to use it). Long, complex words have their place, as we shall see shortly, but they offer nothing when used simply because they are long and complex.

Don’t use synonyms for variation (or to avoid repetition)
Synonyms are often used to provide variation, and that in turn is often to avoid repetition. As sensible and obvious as this use may seem, I think it’s a mistake. If you find yourself with repetition in your writing, rather than reaching for the thesaurus and using a synonym to disguise it, the first thing you should do is ask why has the repetition arisen. Is it simply because you’re using a very simple word - black, red, tree, water - which necessarily occurs often? If so, repetition may not be a problem at all; such simple, common words have a tendency to fade from view when read as part of a larger piece, and so multiple uses of the same word may not be a problem at all (this is somewhat akin to the principle of Said Bookism).

Repetition may also occur because of a poorly structured sentence or paragraph, or problems with the narrative. Is the repetition occurring simply because you are saying the same thing more than you need to? In this case, all that use of synonyms will do is conceal the basic fault in the writing. Don’t do it; much better to address the structural problem than simply plastering over the cracks. If the same word occurs in two nearby sentences, can you actually combine those sentences into and reduce duplication and redundancy? Is the repetition there because you’ve made everything look and feel the same? Don’t use synonyms to hide this, expand your ideas, try to bring greater variation to the descriptions you’re writing (and I mean genuine variation, not simply saying the same thing two different ways).

There are also questions of style. Are you using the repetition to stress a point? In this case, sometimes use of synonyms is helpful (you’re not concealing your repetition, you’re actually strengthening it) but you should also consider using adjectives, adverbs or intensifiers to create the same stress. If you are using synonyms for stress, be careful that the actual, precise meanings of those words you use are compatible without simply being identical. This is akin to the next point…

Use a synonym when you wish to be more specific
This absolutely has to be the main reason for using a synonym. Sometimes using the word red is fine, but if you want to insinuate the bloody tone of the colour in question, maybe crimson is better. The trick here is to be absolutely clear of your own meaning. I often find myself with a vague idea of what I’m trying to say, but with the feeling that there’s probably a word with a more accurate, more precise meaning out there to be found. In such cases, I tend to mark the word I’m unhappy with in square brackets and come back to it later. So I might simply write [dark], knowing it’s not really quite the right word, and after some consideration and consulting a thesaurus (and then a dictionary to check the exact meaning of the words in question) I’ll change it to tenebrous.

The point here is that you only change to a synonym when the word you have doesn’t quite suit your meaning - if you mean dark, write dark, leave it as it is; but if you find yourself feeling dark doesn’t quite capture the feeling you have in mind, then go looking for a synonym by all means - just be sure to find the right one. I can’t stress this enough: when choosing a synonym make sure the meaning is accurate and represents what you’re trying to convey; don’t choose it just because it’s a longer, more obscure or more complicated word. Use a dictionary to check the precise meaning of all the synonyms you’re considering - remember, synonyms have similar meanings, but they’re not identical. It’s too easy to overlook the subtle change in meaning brought about by use of a synonym. Be wary of this, it leads to imprecise writing, and it won’t do anything to persuade your reader that what they are reading is the work of someone with a clear meaning in mind. Clever use of synonyms allows you to be both more descriptive and more specific; be sure that in using them you are achieving exactly that.

In the interests of trying to update this blog a little more often, I’ve decided to slightly widen the range of topics which I’ll post on - here, music. Check out this clip of Bruce Springsteen playing The Ghost of Tom Joad accompanied by Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine. Simply awesome.

And for a literary link, obviously The Ghost of Tom Joad refers to the character from Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath , which I’ve just started reading (prompted mostly by the song, I must admit). I’ll post more on the book in due course.

Matt