Here are a bunch of generic everyday words.
Okay.
Waiting.
Document.
Angry.
Bag.
Good.
Spoon.
Hairbrush.
Shiny.
Here is a collection of unusual, impactful, unexpected or specific expressions.
Commitment.
Pause.
Manifesto.
Pure.
Hamper.
Incontestable.
Livid.
Grooming.
Scintillating.
Luxuriate.
Can you feel it? Can you feel the difference?
Some words say more than others. Some words evoke more than others.
Whereas some words dumb down or generalise, others conjure visions so detailed that a mere utterance doesn’t do justice to the insight you gain.
Buttery.
Marriage.
Cataclysmic.
Superyacht.
Velvet.
Organic.
Prana.
Thought-provoking.
Eternity.
Are you picking it up? The feeling, the emotion, the vision. Some words, they contain the highest potential of humankind. Others are rooted in historical trauma. Others again, meh.
Do you still think all words are created equal? That it doesn’t matter so much what words you choose, speak, write? Do you still want to look for a ‘proofreader’ on Upwork?
Words are powerful.
Words are power.
And for a short time, I am a custodian of other people’s words.
It’s not a responsibility I will ever take lightly. This is why I don’t believe in ghost-writers. Why I won’t work with prospects whose first enquiry is ‘how much?’ for their project. And why I find ‘word counts’ an arbitrary and unhelpful measurement of the value of a book.
For this reason, and unlike most editors, I don’t charge per word. Instead, I encourage writers to express all they have to say, making their book as long as it needs to be. Likewise, I suggest authors refrain from padding to try to hit a word count.
I would rather a book contained 30,000 potent words, loaded with richness and meaning, than 60,000 words of fluff.
And news flash…
So would your reader.
Because we can tell. We are all sensitive to the frequency of the language around us. And whether we realise it or not, and however subtly it may be, we are impacted by the power of words all day every day.
Some just shouldn’t make the cut.
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