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Implications Week Day Three: Economy of Words

Added 2024-08-08 07:44:30 +0000 UTC

Think about each of these words:

Glitter
Glimmer
Shimmer
Gleam
Glow.

All of them describe a different kind of light. These words probably give you a visceral sense of what they’re describing. Here are some more:

Refulgent
Lucent
Vivid
Pale
Ignited

None of these words begin to approach the power of the previous list. Some words have more power than others. They move beyond the abstract and penetrate the mind of the reader. One well-chosen word can be the equivalent of an entire paragraph, and if we’re to hold the attention of our readers, we have to make sure every word is visceral.

Financial advisors usually warn against keeping savings in a current account. Money should be put to work as an investment that draws a passive income, and words are the same. They must do the hard work of glittering and gleaming, not the lazy work of refulgence and ignition. The harder you make your words work, the better. In writing, we call it “economy”.

Economy doesn’t just mean choosing the most powerful words at your disposal. It also means not using ineffective ones. Explanations and abstract sentences are usually too benign to bother using. Wasted words can destroy a brilliant text, and they almost always do.

If writers were builders who got an identical number of bricks, some might put them in a pile. Some might use them to build a house with caulk, paint, and insulation. Words must be chosen just as carefully. Always be suspicious of something that is easy to say. It usually means you’re throwing bricks on a pile instead of building a house.

Every time you write something, you should go back and remove the waste. Every boring sentence, every cliché, every over-explanation and cluttered sentence must go.