I noticed while writing my assignments that I had generously exceeded the word limit (the word limit for one of the assignments was 2500 and I wrote 5000 words of crap). At first, I felt somewhat proud that I had managed to gather more than enough juicy material and that this extra could get me extra marks but it was when I re-read my assignment I realised that the ‘extra’ that I had written was not because I had brilliant analysis but because I had a y vocab and no sense whatsoever of technical jargon.

There is a charm in saying a lot by writing a little (Chinese proverbs anyone?) Imagine someone explaining a topic by going on and on, adding lines over and over again and somebody doing the same by writing it in three or four sentences. This confinement of meaning in a few choice words is not only visually appealing but also intellectually. It emphasizes on how your idea is not over the place but has been channelised properly. The same I guess applies for fanfiction as well.

Author’s who have a good hold of diction are at a much better position than those who don’t because they manage to get to the point without digressions. I know many people rant about the use of heavy words in fanfiction but sometimes, it is just necessary and unavoidable. A very basic example would be:

“She was very scared and extremely terrified.”

Correction:
“She was petrified.”

See! Short and sweet and definitely, to the point.

Hence, I believe that no matter in which language you write it is immensely important to have a good hold over it and improve your vocabulary day by day. Technical terms are equally important to be kept in mind and ofcourse, to be implemented. “Discourse”, “Narrative”, “tropes”, “trajectories”, etc. is all technicalities associated with literature, which one should keep in mind while dealing with literature. The same applies for different things.

Thus, I need to go and improve my vocab before I kill myself writing long sentences without a structure or beauty. =_=