It's Word Choices Week, and I Have an Exercise For You

This is probably the biggest Swiss Army Knife ever built. You’re only as useful as your tools, and that baby has everything from nail files and recessed bit holders (whatever those are) to rivet setters and Allen wrenches. You’re not going to get far with it if you use a nail cleaner to screw in a nail, and your word choices are the same.

Language should be a precision tool. In order to write clearly, we have to achieve economy of words. That means we use the least possible number of words to achieve our intentions. That means every single word must do its job superbly well. This is why “Call me Ishmael” is one of the best opening sentences in literary history. It has only three words, and yet it calls the entire book into question. He didn’t say, “I am Ishmael.” He said, “Call me Ishmael.” That means he may be Ishmael, but he probably isn’t, so the question will weigh on you through the entire reading experience. Three words did that. Just three.

Our writer was sharp as hell, but I can almost guarantee you he didn’t always have so much power. Few of us do. We must learn that precision by putting thought into every single word we put on the page until we can wield words well. Your word choices must feel and communicate. They must impress an image or feeling onto the reader and hide layers of meaning.

Here’s another superb opening:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.

Economy of words doesn’t require you to use few words. It requires you to use the right words, and that Dickens paragraph you’ve just read has a way of sticking in your brain forever.

Here’s another:

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.

How much power that little word “thirteen” has! That’s it. Just one word.

This week I’m hoping I’ll be able to fill all five days with word choices, but I’d also like you to exercise economy of words. You know the best way to do that: Write a piece of flash fiction of no more than 100 words.