Older Dog Wisdom #9 - Memoirs

As Tux and I made our way around our favorite park, I was struck by the number of words he knew. In addition to the usual words like “no,” “good boy,” and “walk,” he also knows “this way,” “okay,” and “go around.” The latter are not words that most dogs know and respond to.

These thoughts led me next to thinking about the people who advise writers to dumb down their writing. Surely, if my 11-year-old dog knows simple words and phrase, the reading public should be a step above Tux and know more complicated words and phrases. If that’s true, why, then, are writers being told to dumb down?

Are the people telling us to dumb down simply insulting the reading public or are they, themselves, unable to understand so-called 50-cent words and so want writers to write down to their level? Readers and writers alike love the richness of the language. I’ve read a few books lately whose authors have taken the writing advisors to heart and dumbed down their writing. What a waste it was for the writer and the reader both to do that. We both wasted out time on this nonsense. I am loathed to believe that the authors of those books were not capable of using 50-cent words.

I’m pretty sure that Tux would have been happy to read those books, so full of 2-cent words, bland images, and trite dialogue. He would have reveled in the books because he could understand the words. They were directed right at him.

If people want to read books with only simplistic plots and 2-cent words, there are probably hundreds of children’s picture books they will enjoy. In the meantime, let the adults read intelligent, complicated plot- and character-driven books strewn with a plethora of 50-cent words, rich descriptions of place and time, and scintillating dialogue.

Tux is thinking about writing his own book now that he understands that he doesn’t have to use the English language to it’s full potential. He says he’s got a plot in mind. He says its about two dogs, one a girl and one a male. They’re brother and sister and they’ve roam around the world with their humans.

I asked him if his book was going to be a memoir. He looked at me funnily. “What’s a memoir?” he asked.

Long Live the $10 Word or Dumbing Down Authors

All over the media, be it in hard copy or on the Internet, you see stories about the eminent demise of traditional publishing. With the ever-growing popularity of e-book readers like the Nook and even the iPad (yes, I, too, lust after one), people are saying that the print media is dying if not already dead. I don’t know about that, I do know that publishing is changing. What I lament is the dumbing down of books regardless of how they’re put into my hands.

I long for the days when writers were not only allowed to, but were expected to use the English language to its full potential. I read a blog the other day that speaks to this very issue. The blogger was saying that authors “should always” use a short word rather than a long word. He also asked why use a $10.00 word when a .05 cent word will do? Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because not all of us want to write to the lowest common denominator. Maybe because most of us still believe that readers aren’t dumb.

When I was a youngster, I was told that if I use “big” words, no one would understand them. Why not? I asked. I was told that no one wanted to have to look words up in a dictionary. Why not? I again asked.

I thought everyone kept a list (mine is on my iPhone) of words that we have come across that we didn’t know the meaning of and have to look them up. Words like “crepuscular” (an adjective meaning relating to or resembling twilight) or “refulgence” (a noun meaning a radiant or resplendent quality or state, i.e., brilliance).

Granted, we probably might not want to use either crepuscular or refulgence, but the author of the blog post mentioned above suggested we not use the words, “accommodations” for rooms,“purchase” for buy, or “utilize” for use. The author went so far as to say these “big” words constituted “bad” writing and that they “muddled” prose. Oh my.

I’ve always thought that authors whether they’re writing fiction, non-fiction, blogs, tweets, or Facebook entries should strive to use the English language to its, and our readers, fullest potential. Apparently, I’m wrong. The blogger says that we authors should prefer the familiar word to the “fancy” word. What if the fancy word is the familiar word to us? His advice to dumb down is one I’ve heard before. I for one reject his advice. Long live $10 words!

If I believed that the blogger was speaking for the publishing world, I’d be lamenting its death with all the other naysayers.