Take Precaution!

It's the end of the (school) year. I was supposed to do things but nope here I am. I'm really happy to see that even though I don't update this too often, people are reading my things and finding it helpful ; u; I appreciate it because I'm still learning much myself \o/ also bc I'm actually a horrible teacher.

Anyway, today I want to talk about diction. Diction-- choice of words. Just putting in that definition because I didn't actually know it or even heard of it until this school year so. Yes. 

Change in adjectives, verbs and nouns

Different words, different effect, though still with a general meaning. For example, there are so many ways to say: He smiled. Am I right or am I right?

He grinned, he smirked, his lips curled upwards. 

He gave me a cheeky grin. He flashed an apologetic smile. He gave a sheepish smile. He turned to me with a broad grin.

Sure, they're all relating to smiling, but each one of them has a different kind of smile. Adjectives most definitely add onto the effect. For example, the difference between a small smile and a lazy smile. Both are smiling but with different efforts and each to be used in their own context. A small smile, as you could imagine would represent a small peice of happiness being shared. Maybe not even happiness but courtesy like,

As I walked passed him in the hallway, he flashed me a small smile and a nod before he turned into his classroom.

A smirk would show amusement. A grin could show excitment, amusement, happiness. A lazy smile would just be well... lazy. It would most definately show much about the character smiling, perhaps even the relation between the smiling character and the one having a smile flahsed to. 

"I made it!" Hyunseung runs up to Junhyung, letter still in hand though crumpled through the abundence of excitment. "University of Seoul accepted me!"

"That's cool," Junhyung briefly glances away from the television screen to the older male, flashing a lazy smile before returning his attention to his program.

In this case, it shows that Junhyung doesn't really care as much as he should, though he still is happy for his friend. Now, if we replace 'lazy smile' to something like, 'grins' then we would also change Junhyung's reaction.

"I made it!" Hyunseung runs up to Junhyung, letter still in hand though crumpled through the abundence of excitment. "University of Seoul accepted me!"

"Great!" Junhyung tears his eyes away from the television screen to the older male. He flashes a wide grin, pulling himself off the couch to hug the older. "Congratulations, I'm so happy for you."

Notice the difference in energy? 

Here's another example.

"Yoseob," Doojoon grins. versus something like "Yoseob," Doojoon smirks. 

The former shows that Doojoon is happy to have Yoseob as company, even if he is or is not expecting the other. The latter, however, shows that Doojoon is more amused than anything to see Yoseob. 

To show something more visual, I found a table posted on WriteWorld.tumblr.com. Not actually created by them but reblogged. WriteWorld is a good blog to get past writer's block as well as learn tips and tricks to better writing. 

As well as a graph on types of crying, sympathy over patheticness. 

 post

These mainly go along with specifics and showing but not telling. Most definitely a lot better than plain words and helps evoke emotions out of the reader. 

Be heard!

Diction doesn't stop there, though. It's more than just choosing the right adjective. As a student who went into a partial IB programme, studying HL English, understanding an author's diction is very important. Understand that puncuation can also play a big part of it too as it can achieve a different effect. Diction, mainly contributes to your voice.

For example, if you're writing an essay, you'll most definately want to choose an objective voice. This means avoiding words such as: I think, we, the audience, it seems, it is obvious. Meaning, those words will absolutely not be a choice. The difference between:

In the Hunger Games, I think it is obvious that Katniss Everdeen would strive in her endeavours because she is always being herself and it's obvious that she is called the girl on fire because of that. 

and

In the novel, The Hunger Games written by Suzanne Collins, the author shows that the best way to face an endeavor and overcome it would be to always remain as oneself. 

The latter shows an objective voice because it is presenting something and to further back the sectence up, there should be evidence supporting the statement. The first one is more of a passive because it is not presenting a statement, but by saying 'I think' it is an opinion. Also, because putting 'I think', it makes one sound uncertain. So the latter has more of an objective voice because it sounds certain (and because there should be evidence after that to back it up). It also sounds a lot more formal than the former. 

So to create a certain voice, you want to be careful of the words you chose. Let's say you're writing in first person and the character you're presenting is someone who is very reserved and observant. In your writing, you may include, as you might expect, a lot of detail. How much exactly? I don't know, that honestly depends all on your character and how observent they are. 

Seven. Only Seven people walked by in the past thirty minutes. That's strange, usually this street is bustling with life. With hipsters, business people on break or just a normal civilian on their day off. Then again, I guess the lack of people could be explained by the new carnival in town. Oh well, that's better for me, I guess. Less people to distub me.

"Can I get you more coffee?" Dasom's sweet voice hums. I turn around and face the young girl. Her eyes crinkle into crescents and I try my best to imitate her. "It's awefully quiet today, huh?" She says taking my porecelain mug. Her glossed lips curl into a small smile as the dark bitter liquid pours. "I was hoping I could go to that carnival everyone's buzzing about but I have no one to go with, Hyorin's too busy." A soft sigh escapes her before she slides the mug back to me. 

Or

The leaves are turning yellow. Already. It's just slightly passed mid-August, why is that already happening? Could this mean that an early winter is coming? I shiver with the thought of it. Goodness, do I hate winter. I sigh to myself, turning away form the window and glance down at my mug. Coffee, one cream and one sugar. It gives the beverage such a lovely hue of brown but this cup o' joe hasn't been stirred properly. I can still see the marbel of the cream. It reminds me of those lattes, where the barista's draw deseigns with the cream. 

"Can I get you more coffee?" A sweet voice rings and I snap my head up. 

Diction should probably a little more close to each other but in this example, I wanted to highlight how even though both characters are observant, they notice different things.

There's a continuation I want to make where I want to be talking about specifcallyand atmosphere u _u For now, this might be what I can offer so far. I also accidently got off topic while writing and talked about voice specifically, so you know. There's that too.