Finding the right word

I know it may be difficult at times to find the right word in your story or poem and I'm sure you want it to sound good, right? Well, don't worry so much right now. If you get stuck over what you really want to say at this time, you might block some of the thoughts you want to get out which could block the inspiration coming to you. We all have a little perfectionism in us from time to time especially when it comes to what we like to do. But the revisions can come later. If you want to brush up on your vocabulary there are several things you can do.

Reading is very fundamental as we heard when we were little, but truthfully, it is important and fun. There are so many wonderful books out there to learn from and grow inspired. And without even realizing it, you pick up on more and more words each time you read. For the words that you don't know, underline them. If you want to look them up right away, go ahead but you don't have to do it at that time because it might disturb you from the story. Then when you're done reading, you might want to go back to the underlined words and look then up in the dictionary or thesaurus and see how many words you already know that have the same exact meaning. Who knows. You may just want to use this new word in your work.


Another thing that you can do is start your own WORD OF THE DAY challenge. For all the words that you may not know in books, magazines or what a professor says that you pretend you understand- just write it down on a post it or small piece of paper and write the definition after it. When you have your collection of words, you may want to put them into a jar or other container and each day, pull one out. That word can be your word of the day to learn.

Another way to improve your vocabulary, is to perhaps find books online, at the library, or bookstore. There might be fun ones in which you learn new words by doing different exercises instead of a list of random words.

There is a lot you can do if you want to add more unique and better sounding words in your work if you want to- but the most important thing is to not force a word. Sometimes it sounds more natural to just let the word come from your heart. It may flow better or be relatable and understandable. But there is also nothing wrong in expanding your vocab- you might just like
finding new words that you can use.