Ten...
One to change the light bulb.
Four to say that they'd already had the idea for changing a light bulb, but they didn't want to show anyone what they were doing until they'd polished their light-bulb-changing.
Two to point out that someone else had already changed a light bulb, so changing another one was unoriginal and thus not worthwhile.
Three to call light bulbs a new technology that was going to be catastrophic for traditional candlelight-driven writers.
And one to figure out that writers are lousy at math.
I admit, I borrowed that one from a blogger who apparently borrowed it from another blogger- and I bet it goes so on and so forth, so I am not going to bother linking it around- jokes like that are a dime a dozen, and crediting the original is probably all but impossible- so laugh and share, just don't claim it for your own. :P
The little joke aside, I must point out there is no kidding around when it comes to talking about how awesome the content on Valucre is. With tons of new RP every day, some pretty talented people coming out of the woodwork, and new stuff in development all the time- well, Valucre is definitely the place to be. We may not be the biggest, or even the most popular- but we're striving to deliver the most bang for your buck- that, and I think the majority of us can change lightbulbs without arguments.
Maybe. >_>
What's Happening Valucre?
The Chosen Goes to Round Two - A couple weeks have gone by, and in that time, we have unveiled the fights for round two and they have begun. You might be wondering how those matches are going... well, slow so far, at least in a few. One match seems to have a decent start going, a second is moving so far, and the others need to get started. There is one match with content for reading, so I definitely encourage you to start there, and continue to monitor, because something should happen, soon (I hope). You can prod some of these slower guys over in the lounge. ;)
Bloosh's Labyrinth- This is an alternative style RP that still has room for one more, and it looks like it will be quite a bit of fun. You end up in a maze, where you have no idea which way to go, but you must reach the center- and quickly. Completion earns you treasure and freedom, while failure comes from falling to the beasts that lurk its darkened halls. Do you have what it takes to defeat the labyrinth? Test your wits!
Need a Quest?- Ayden has put together what is called the Broken Plank Quest Board, a resource for players looking for things to do. A slew of quests are listed on the wall of this tavern (located in Morgana of Orisia), offering a variety of tasks, artifact hunts, and odd jobs for characters to complete in order to earn VB or other goods. To top that off, remember- quests are canonical: It gets your character's name in the official print! In this same listing, they are advertising openings with the group, "Order of the Black Heart", so if that tickles your fancy, you will want to look into that as well. See what they might have for you ;)
Kokenshi Recruitment Process- This new member of ours has put together a pretty extensive amount of details about a race that he would like to offer up to the writing community. He intends to create a group when enough people share interest, to help others develop a character according to the lore behind these guys. The race sounds pretty tough and it gives you an opportunity to play something from outside Valucre. Could be fun, so maybe you ought to check it out. Just Sayin ;)
In Character: Some Cool Shit- I know, shame on me, I used a swear word. >> Anyway, there are a couple different threads with some content put together by Xaeroth using Alt-Codes and BBCodes to make a couple of really cool things that can be applicable to IC posts- he made a chess board and he made a slot machine. So, if you want to have an illustrated chess match in character, or if you want to set up real slot machines for your casino- you have working codes for it. You can see the chessboard here and take a look at this for the slots.
Artifact Hunts- Per the rules of engagement, when someone goes after a Terrenus based Artifact, notice has to be put up for others so they have a chance to either help or muddy your efforts. We have two different artifact hunts going right now, one that is a pretty well established group (I'd say probably late to join as a party member, but never too late to try and be a rogue ;) ) and the other that is just getting started. One group is after the Sheobrazi Golem armor (a flexible suit, form fitting black suit that protects against mundane weapons, mind affecting spells, poison, and disease. This group is headed by the storyteller Blue Shoelaces. The other group is after the Instant Fortress, a portable fortress that grows from a tube the size of an index finger to a 30ft tall three story tower with walls going 10ft into the ground. It has only arrow slits for windows and features a battlement for men at the top. Extremely durable and unable to be unlocked by any but the owner- quite a handy tool for someone with a large party or small militia. This group is headed by myself as the storyteller. Good luck to all!
Itching for a Good Survival Horror?- If you enjoy survival based horror with nasty things like zombies, this might be your calling. Described as possibly mixing themes from Silent Hill with some old school Resident Evil, this one aims for creepiness, disorientation and challenge. It is a GM'd game, and members who are decently active are requested. It looks like a dice system, using the board die roller, is in place to help keep fights fair, and to give an element of risk to your character. Think you can survive?
Featured Read of the Week- Hey! This week, I found something that did not have King in it- I know, the guy is awesome, but we do have to feature other folks here. In fact, my thread choice for this week features two writers who have not yet been featured (so all new this time) in a thread taking place in Kings Hill, Orisia, with Hopelessly Hopeful and Fairess.
Ends and Beginnings- What caught my attention straightaway while I was reading this thread was the amount of tension- tension between the characters, and due to the circumstances. You really get the feeling that a lot more is going on with the characters than what either one is letting on to the other, and the members here do a good job of bringing up the mix of emotions generated from both the conflict between themselves and the conflicts outside of this situation. It was an enjoyable read, and I recommend you take a look.
Speaking of good writing:
There was once a young man who, in his youth, professed his desire to become a great writer. When asked to define great, he said, "I want to write stuff that the whole world will read, stuff that people will react to on a truly emotional level, stuff that will make them scream, cry, howl in pain and anger!"
He now works for Microsoft writing error messages.
This Week's Feature: Le'Chery, Isélyr
At a Glance:
Canonical Occurrences by Members:
Available Quests:
Brief Summary of Lore:
Borrowed from the Lore: Once the mighty kingdom of Gorand, Le'Chery is all that remains of the vast empire. Now, she is a trading village located in the central most region of Isélyr. Many adventurers gather here to replenish their supplies and provisions before heading out on their adventures. Various insects and animals indigenous to this area include common ants, grasshoppers, beetles, bumble bees, hawks, butterflies, rabbits, bobcats, donkeys, wolves, owls, goats, horses, bears and other such creatures. While there are giant species of these animals, encounters with them are few and far between. Le'Chery is centered in the grasslands of Isélyr. The semi-arid, windy environment has very hot summers and extremely cold winters. Very few shrubs and trees grow here. Crops of wheat, barley, and corn are harvested as well as legumes and root vegetables. Le'Chery is the only area where the Purple Haze Weed is grown and harvested. Smoked in pipes, the Purple Haze Weed offers its user the feeling of bliss, joy, and general happiness. It is for this reason that the Purple Haze Weed is highly sought after, bringing an increase in wealth to Le'Chery.
Quick tips for the writers out there:
Avoid the use of vulgarisms that might piss off the reader.
Don't verbify nouns.
Avoid clichés like the plague.
Try to not split infinitives.
AND A sentence containing a parenthetical phrase (must be a complete sentence) without that phrase. ;)
Welcome:
Welcome, Jaden Darkstar Silver
He's nice, kind, caring, protective, strong and loveable, an RPer seeking cool people to get down and dirty with- get your mind out of the gutters folks, he's not posting a personal's ad, he's looking for RP partners!
Welcome, MysteriousMagnum
A woman of few words! All she offers is that she is pleased to meet us all- shyness, or frugality in this dismal word economy? Find out for yourself!
Welcome, Theclothecologist
A Doctor Who fan who's also a puppeteer and a table top role-player. He's thinking about putting focus on building puppets over performing with them, but in the meantime, he's here to check out Valucre, because he heard good things about us- don't spoil it!
Welcome, Bradapalooza
Brad is the kind of guy who first chases after an engineering degree and then somewhere along the line decides to throw it all to the wind so he can earn an English degree instead- I'm still debating if that's dedication or someone who enjoys inflicting harm upon their self, but either way, I'm sold. He's also working on a sci-fi book too! He's looking for collaborative RPs, so perhaps you will meet him out there somewhere.
Welcome, Sempercon
This individual has been missing from the RP scene for a number of years, but they have come back, and they have made Valucre their first stop. Let's help this fine person bust off the rust and get back into RP!
Welcome, Catmint
Another Gabbi to help confuse us when talking about one of the two! She was into other RP sites but school held her back, but now that she is out, she is looking to get back into the RP thing. Let's help her feel at home. :)
Welcome, Loola Lovette
Loola is a bit shy as a newbie, but her home away from home was foreclosed on, and now they are here looking for another place to stay. Loola hopes to find acceptance, and speaking on behalf of Valucre, I think you have come to the right place.
Welcome, Elementary
Elementary likes to point out of the obvious, such as that he is new. He wants to try his hand at doing some writing here, especially since he has free-time during College's summer vacation. He's dabbled in writing, and because of that, he got interested in Valucre- hey, attracting the aspiring writers, I like it!
Returns:
Welcome back, Zenophoenix
Zenophoenix had to leave for a while, but now he is back and ready to RP. Glad to have you back!
Welcome back, Olivejuice
Olivejuice is a long-time member going back to the old days of Ayenee, and takes absences here and there as family dynamics arise- she is raising a beautiful family by the way- give her a warm welcome back!
Welcome back, Nariatheberzerker
They were around before but took off for a spell, but now their back, so let's encourage them to hop in some RP!
Wow. This is just getting scary. Another week, another 8 members listed! Of course, this time around we only had 8 new members in two weeks, which is definitely a little disappointing, but the fact that the new amount totaled 8 again is just getting to be really weird. Alright Valucre, stop this madness! Give us a real flow of members!
And hey, think these sorts of analogies might make it into the next piece of literature?
She caught your eye like one of those pointy hook latches that used to dangle from screen doors and would fly up whenever you banged the door open again.
McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty Bag filled with vegetable soup
John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.
Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.
The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.
I'd rather be eating bacon, but whatever.
I actually thought of this one ahead of time, so this one should have a little more thought to it (I hope).
After a couple videos, a conversation or two online, and then more conversations in person, I feel like I have just been pushed into this topic- at least, shoved into it with no time for me to withdraw my interest. The subject has to do with English, communication, and the precision of language- the usage of words and the unique ways that we use them, and what that means. By that, I mean- how we communicate, and just what we communicate as we talk- and further, thinking about whether or not there is more than one meaning to a word.
Some words have more than one definition- in such a way that no one could argue it. Others, the definitions might be hazier, in that some people think it means one thing, and others think it is appropriate to use it in another fashion. We have words that are in and of themselves ambiguous to a degree, leaving a lot of room for personal interpretation of the word in defining its meaning. Of course, then there are words that are commonly misrepresented, and others that might be less offended, but will be offended at some point.
By now, I am sure you are asking- what’s this guy’s point? Well, let me put it out there before I lose you :P.
There are imprecisions in our language that lead to a lot of miscommunication. Sometimes, the blame entirely rests with the person who simply misunderstood the message- for whatever reason, they took it in a way far different then intended, and any other outside observer did not take it in that way at all. Sometimes, the fault lies on both sides to a degree- one person being less than clear, the other having a lacking understanding of a word’s flexibility to include that definition. Then of course, we have times where the fault is on the speaker/writer and not on the listener/reader at all.
For today’s thoughts, I wanted to set aside a bit of time to think about words, and all of their amazing uses and flexibility that comes with them. When it comes to face to face communication, we often can see beyond poor wording, if we are good with reading body language, facial expressions, and voices- these make up much more of our communication anyway. But if you are dealing with someone who does not do very well, or if that face to face component is removed, communication becomes harder, because we must rely on the what is the stated words- and if those words are imprecise, or misunderstood, I might come across the wrong way.
Let’s hash this out on a couple different fronts:
1. Thinking about the words we use
2. Thinking about what words actually mean (relative to their definition, our culture, and us personally).
Many of us want to write- we either write purely for hobby or because we have a genuine interest in putting ourselves out there some day. We dabble with words, experiment, and try to add more to our vocabulary- and if we are not careful, we might begin using a word or three in the wrong way- this often relates to an overreliance on the thesaurus and not giving weight to the dictionary itself. Someone might see a word come up in the thesaurus and they like it, so they immediately plug it into their story in lieu of the ordinary word. Now, there are a couple things wrong with this:
First, sometimes, the ordinary word is what fits the story the best. It is nice to expand your vocabulary and add more tools to your tool belt for constructing stories, but that does not mean you always need the skill tool to do the job that a basic tool will accomplish as easily- or even better. Too many big words in your writing begins to sound superfluous and fake- the writing becomes less genuine, less enjoyable, and less readable- don’t do that to yourself.
Second, the word you chose might not be the true fit. Look, I can look up a word for eyes, and stumble across the word ‘Ocular’, and thus decide to call eyes oculars. Well, hate to break it to anyone who uses that, but I can show you what an ocular is when we refer to its noun form, and it is not an eye- it is these things- an ocular is the eyepiece of an optical tool- it is not an eye. The adjective ocular has the meaning, ‘pertaining to the eye’ so any time I say something ocular, I need a noun following it that ocular can apply to: An ocular movement (n), an ocular organ (n)- which, by the way, would be only way to correctly state this. Your character does not have iridescent cerulean oculars- the only way to make this work is to say that they have iridescent cerulean ocular organs.
Doesn’t sounds so classy, now does it?
I don’t mean to pick on anyone here, I just want to point out that in that second scenario, an imprecision of language could lead to confusion there easily- especially if someone does not follow RP trends and know that the word oculars gets treated synonymous with eyes. Any other reader, aware of that word’s meaning, will have to stop and think about what you were meaning when you said that- which anything that pulls them completely away from your story is not a good thing.
Another thing I see come up is not always about using the wrong word yourself, but perhaps it is using a word that is not always so easily defined. I was having an interesting conversation the other day, and we go to talking about friendship- what the hell is friendship exactly? Is there a universally acceptable definition of friendship that clearly outlines what that is, beyond a sense of something generic? Or is that something that can vary from one individual to the next, based on what they define as a friendship. If I call you my friend, and you call me your friend, are we really talking about the same thing?
Or two different ideas entirely?
To one person, a friend may be what I call an acquaintance, but to the next person over, my friendship is what qualifies only as an acquaintanceship, and not a friendship. So which of us are wrong? Are any of use wrong in this case, or are we just operating from different principles? To answer something like this, we would need an entirely different day for closing thoughts, and probably more than one at that. For the sake of just talking about communication, I think we need to just go back to that very point: Communication.
Make sure both of you are aware of what you define as a friendship, and then decide from there what you truly have.
When communicating with another individual, particularly one you do not know very well or someone who has just mistaken a message you gave, think about the words you are choosing carefully, and ask yourself:
Am I using it correctly?
Is this a word that has more than one meaning?
Is this a word that could be perceived differently than how I intend to convey it?
It might surprise you what can be taken the wrong way. Sometimes misunderstandings are inevitable, but communication is going to be the easiest way to clear them up.
Let’s wrap this up, so I can kinda publish on time today:
Whether you are writing or speaking, apply the above principles to ensure that your message is clear. Be especially mindful of this when you write, because the other components of communication shall offer no context for which the reader to gauge where you are coming from. With writing, all they have are the words you put together. Further, when you are writing, using the wrong words does not make you sound like a more elegant writer, it makes you seem pretentious and silly!
Choose your words carefully, convey the message you want, and make it count ;)
Until next week folks!
- Acies
Kokenshi Recruitment Process- This new member of ours has put together a pretty extensive amount of details about a race that he would like to offer up to the writing community. He intends to create a group when enough people share interest, to help others develop a character according to the lore behind these guys. The race sounds pretty tough and it gives you an opportunity to play something from outside Valucre. Could be fun, so maybe you ought to check it out. Just Sayin ;)
In Character: Some Cool Shit- I know, shame on me, I used a swear word. >> Anyway, there are a couple different threads with some content put together by Xaeroth using Alt-Codes and BBCodes to make a couple of really cool things that can be applicable to IC posts- he made a chess board and he made a slot machine. So, if you want to have an illustrated chess match in character, or if you want to set up real slot machines for your casino- you have working codes for it. You can see the chessboard here and take a look at this for the slots.
Artifact Hunts- Per the rules of engagement, when someone goes after a Terrenus based Artifact, notice has to be put up for others so they have a chance to either help or muddy your efforts. We have two different artifact hunts going right now, one that is a pretty well established group (I'd say probably late to join as a party member, but never too late to try and be a rogue ;) ) and the other that is just getting started. One group is after the Sheobrazi Golem armor (a flexible suit, form fitting black suit that protects against mundane weapons, mind affecting spells, poison, and disease. This group is headed by the storyteller Blue Shoelaces. The other group is after the Instant Fortress, a portable fortress that grows from a tube the size of an index finger to a 30ft tall three story tower with walls going 10ft into the ground. It has only arrow slits for windows and features a battlement for men at the top. Extremely durable and unable to be unlocked by any but the owner- quite a handy tool for someone with a large party or small militia. This group is headed by myself as the storyteller. Good luck to all!
Itching for a Good Survival Horror?- If you enjoy survival based horror with nasty things like zombies, this might be your calling. Described as possibly mixing themes from Silent Hill with some old school Resident Evil, this one aims for creepiness, disorientation and challenge. It is a GM'd game, and members who are decently active are requested. It looks like a dice system, using the board die roller, is in place to help keep fights fair, and to give an element of risk to your character. Think you can survive?
Featured Read of the Week- Hey! This week, I found something that did not have King in it- I know, the guy is awesome, but we do have to feature other folks here. In fact, my thread choice for this week features two writers who have not yet been featured (so all new this time) in a thread taking place in Kings Hill, Orisia, with Hopelessly Hopeful and Fairess.
Ends and Beginnings- What caught my attention straightaway while I was reading this thread was the amount of tension- tension between the characters, and due to the circumstances. You really get the feeling that a lot more is going on with the characters than what either one is letting on to the other, and the members here do a good job of bringing up the mix of emotions generated from both the conflict between themselves and the conflicts outside of this situation. It was an enjoyable read, and I recommend you take a look.
Speaking of good writing:
There was once a young man who, in his youth, professed his desire to become a great writer. When asked to define great, he said, "I want to write stuff that the whole world will read, stuff that people will react to on a truly emotional level, stuff that will make them scream, cry, howl in pain and anger!"
He now works for Microsoft writing error messages.
Lore of the Week!
This Week's Feature: Le'Chery, Isélyr
At a Glance:
- Leader: Lord Arimir Falscheim.
- Population: A mixture comprised of Humans with splashes of Elves, Dwarves, and Goblins- no numbers given.
- Defenses: No Lore Available
- Neighboring Landmarks: North: Nyssian Mountains. South: Athirat Desert. West: The forests of E'kraun and further away, the Bay of Chemosh. East: The Port city of Hymir.
Canonical Occurrences by Members:
- None Yet
Available Quests:
Brief Summary of Lore:
Borrowed from the Lore: Once the mighty kingdom of Gorand, Le'Chery is all that remains of the vast empire. Now, she is a trading village located in the central most region of Isélyr. Many adventurers gather here to replenish their supplies and provisions before heading out on their adventures. Various insects and animals indigenous to this area include common ants, grasshoppers, beetles, bumble bees, hawks, butterflies, rabbits, bobcats, donkeys, wolves, owls, goats, horses, bears and other such creatures. While there are giant species of these animals, encounters with them are few and far between. Le'Chery is centered in the grasslands of Isélyr. The semi-arid, windy environment has very hot summers and extremely cold winters. Very few shrubs and trees grow here. Crops of wheat, barley, and corn are harvested as well as legumes and root vegetables. Le'Chery is the only area where the Purple Haze Weed is grown and harvested. Smoked in pipes, the Purple Haze Weed offers its user the feeling of bliss, joy, and general happiness. It is for this reason that the Purple Haze Weed is highly sought after, bringing an increase in wealth to Le'Chery.
Quick tips for the writers out there:
Avoid the use of vulgarisms that might piss off the reader.
Don't verbify nouns.
Avoid clichés like the plague.
Try to not split infinitives.
AND A sentence containing a parenthetical phrase (must be a complete sentence) without that phrase. ;)
New Members and Returns!
Welcome:
Welcome, Jaden Darkstar Silver
He's nice, kind, caring, protective, strong and loveable, an RPer seeking cool people to get down and dirty with- get your mind out of the gutters folks, he's not posting a personal's ad, he's looking for RP partners!
Welcome, MysteriousMagnum
A woman of few words! All she offers is that she is pleased to meet us all- shyness, or frugality in this dismal word economy? Find out for yourself!
Welcome, Theclothecologist
A Doctor Who fan who's also a puppeteer and a table top role-player. He's thinking about putting focus on building puppets over performing with them, but in the meantime, he's here to check out Valucre, because he heard good things about us- don't spoil it!
Welcome, Bradapalooza
Brad is the kind of guy who first chases after an engineering degree and then somewhere along the line decides to throw it all to the wind so he can earn an English degree instead- I'm still debating if that's dedication or someone who enjoys inflicting harm upon their self, but either way, I'm sold. He's also working on a sci-fi book too! He's looking for collaborative RPs, so perhaps you will meet him out there somewhere.
Welcome, Sempercon
This individual has been missing from the RP scene for a number of years, but they have come back, and they have made Valucre their first stop. Let's help this fine person bust off the rust and get back into RP!
Welcome, Catmint
Another Gabbi to help confuse us when talking about one of the two! She was into other RP sites but school held her back, but now that she is out, she is looking to get back into the RP thing. Let's help her feel at home. :)
Welcome, Loola Lovette
Loola is a bit shy as a newbie, but her home away from home was foreclosed on, and now they are here looking for another place to stay. Loola hopes to find acceptance, and speaking on behalf of Valucre, I think you have come to the right place.
Welcome, Elementary
Elementary likes to point out of the obvious, such as that he is new. He wants to try his hand at doing some writing here, especially since he has free-time during College's summer vacation. He's dabbled in writing, and because of that, he got interested in Valucre- hey, attracting the aspiring writers, I like it!
Returns:
Welcome back, Zenophoenix
Zenophoenix had to leave for a while, but now he is back and ready to RP. Glad to have you back!
Welcome back, Olivejuice
Olivejuice is a long-time member going back to the old days of Ayenee, and takes absences here and there as family dynamics arise- she is raising a beautiful family by the way- give her a warm welcome back!
Welcome back, Nariatheberzerker
They were around before but took off for a spell, but now their back, so let's encourage them to hop in some RP!
Wow. This is just getting scary. Another week, another 8 members listed! Of course, this time around we only had 8 new members in two weeks, which is definitely a little disappointing, but the fact that the new amount totaled 8 again is just getting to be really weird. Alright Valucre, stop this madness! Give us a real flow of members!
And hey, think these sorts of analogies might make it into the next piece of literature?
She caught your eye like one of those pointy hook latches that used to dangle from screen doors and would fly up whenever you banged the door open again.
McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty Bag filled with vegetable soup
John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.
Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.
The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.
Other Highlights?
I'd rather be eating bacon, but whatever.
Quick Links- You might have missed this, but any time you are on the forum main page, you have a little option called 'Quick Links' right under 'What's New'. Quick links shows you Today's Posts, Your Subscriptions, Opens your contacts, the list of Site Leaders, and Who's Online. All handy stuff. :)
Did You Know- About Thread Randomizers? If you ever want to insert a random element into your thread, you can either roll a die and see what comes up, or you can submit your RP to a list to have someone else come in and add a random element- a great way to spark life back into an RP, or to allow you to have a new challenge. To learn more, go to this here and get the rest of your Did You Know Archive from over here.
If you were lost in the woods, who would you trust for directions: the publisher who prints everything you write, an agent, or Santa Claus?
A. The agent. The other two indicate you are hallucinating.
If you were lost in the woods, who would you trust for directions: the publisher who prints everything you write, an agent, or Santa Claus?
A. The agent. The other two indicate you are hallucinating.
Closing Thoughts?
I actually thought of this one ahead of time, so this one should have a little more thought to it (I hope).
After a couple videos, a conversation or two online, and then more conversations in person, I feel like I have just been pushed into this topic- at least, shoved into it with no time for me to withdraw my interest. The subject has to do with English, communication, and the precision of language- the usage of words and the unique ways that we use them, and what that means. By that, I mean- how we communicate, and just what we communicate as we talk- and further, thinking about whether or not there is more than one meaning to a word.
Some words have more than one definition- in such a way that no one could argue it. Others, the definitions might be hazier, in that some people think it means one thing, and others think it is appropriate to use it in another fashion. We have words that are in and of themselves ambiguous to a degree, leaving a lot of room for personal interpretation of the word in defining its meaning. Of course, then there are words that are commonly misrepresented, and others that might be less offended, but will be offended at some point.
By now, I am sure you are asking- what’s this guy’s point? Well, let me put it out there before I lose you :P.
There are imprecisions in our language that lead to a lot of miscommunication. Sometimes, the blame entirely rests with the person who simply misunderstood the message- for whatever reason, they took it in a way far different then intended, and any other outside observer did not take it in that way at all. Sometimes, the fault lies on both sides to a degree- one person being less than clear, the other having a lacking understanding of a word’s flexibility to include that definition. Then of course, we have times where the fault is on the speaker/writer and not on the listener/reader at all.
For today’s thoughts, I wanted to set aside a bit of time to think about words, and all of their amazing uses and flexibility that comes with them. When it comes to face to face communication, we often can see beyond poor wording, if we are good with reading body language, facial expressions, and voices- these make up much more of our communication anyway. But if you are dealing with someone who does not do very well, or if that face to face component is removed, communication becomes harder, because we must rely on the what is the stated words- and if those words are imprecise, or misunderstood, I might come across the wrong way.
Let’s hash this out on a couple different fronts:
1. Thinking about the words we use
2. Thinking about what words actually mean (relative to their definition, our culture, and us personally).
Many of us want to write- we either write purely for hobby or because we have a genuine interest in putting ourselves out there some day. We dabble with words, experiment, and try to add more to our vocabulary- and if we are not careful, we might begin using a word or three in the wrong way- this often relates to an overreliance on the thesaurus and not giving weight to the dictionary itself. Someone might see a word come up in the thesaurus and they like it, so they immediately plug it into their story in lieu of the ordinary word. Now, there are a couple things wrong with this:
First, sometimes, the ordinary word is what fits the story the best. It is nice to expand your vocabulary and add more tools to your tool belt for constructing stories, but that does not mean you always need the skill tool to do the job that a basic tool will accomplish as easily- or even better. Too many big words in your writing begins to sound superfluous and fake- the writing becomes less genuine, less enjoyable, and less readable- don’t do that to yourself.
Second, the word you chose might not be the true fit. Look, I can look up a word for eyes, and stumble across the word ‘Ocular’, and thus decide to call eyes oculars. Well, hate to break it to anyone who uses that, but I can show you what an ocular is when we refer to its noun form, and it is not an eye- it is these things- an ocular is the eyepiece of an optical tool- it is not an eye. The adjective ocular has the meaning, ‘pertaining to the eye’ so any time I say something ocular, I need a noun following it that ocular can apply to: An ocular movement (n), an ocular organ (n)- which, by the way, would be only way to correctly state this. Your character does not have iridescent cerulean oculars- the only way to make this work is to say that they have iridescent cerulean ocular organs.
Doesn’t sounds so classy, now does it?
I don’t mean to pick on anyone here, I just want to point out that in that second scenario, an imprecision of language could lead to confusion there easily- especially if someone does not follow RP trends and know that the word oculars gets treated synonymous with eyes. Any other reader, aware of that word’s meaning, will have to stop and think about what you were meaning when you said that- which anything that pulls them completely away from your story is not a good thing.
Another thing I see come up is not always about using the wrong word yourself, but perhaps it is using a word that is not always so easily defined. I was having an interesting conversation the other day, and we go to talking about friendship- what the hell is friendship exactly? Is there a universally acceptable definition of friendship that clearly outlines what that is, beyond a sense of something generic? Or is that something that can vary from one individual to the next, based on what they define as a friendship. If I call you my friend, and you call me your friend, are we really talking about the same thing?
Or two different ideas entirely?
To one person, a friend may be what I call an acquaintance, but to the next person over, my friendship is what qualifies only as an acquaintanceship, and not a friendship. So which of us are wrong? Are any of use wrong in this case, or are we just operating from different principles? To answer something like this, we would need an entirely different day for closing thoughts, and probably more than one at that. For the sake of just talking about communication, I think we need to just go back to that very point: Communication.
Make sure both of you are aware of what you define as a friendship, and then decide from there what you truly have.
When communicating with another individual, particularly one you do not know very well or someone who has just mistaken a message you gave, think about the words you are choosing carefully, and ask yourself:
Am I using it correctly?
Is this a word that has more than one meaning?
Is this a word that could be perceived differently than how I intend to convey it?
It might surprise you what can be taken the wrong way. Sometimes misunderstandings are inevitable, but communication is going to be the easiest way to clear them up.
Let’s wrap this up, so I can kinda publish on time today:
Whether you are writing or speaking, apply the above principles to ensure that your message is clear. Be especially mindful of this when you write, because the other components of communication shall offer no context for which the reader to gauge where you are coming from. With writing, all they have are the words you put together. Further, when you are writing, using the wrong words does not make you sound like a more elegant writer, it makes you seem pretentious and silly!
Choose your words carefully, convey the message you want, and make it count ;)
Until next week folks!
- Acies
"The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense.." ~ Tom Clancy
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