Talking to YOU WRITERS, how do you remember several words?

Question

I've been involved in writing for a couple of years now. I have a decently broadened lexicon. However, sometimes I will blank out and not remember any words I've looked up in the past and will constantly be looking them up on dictionary.com or somewhere.

If anyone has any tips, I would be appreciated if it could be learned on how to remember words effectively. I consequently forget them most of the time, and when I see them again in someone else's work I often ask myself "why can't I remember?"

I will award a best answer 5 stars.

Answer 1

One of the best tools for this is two games. Play a crossword game every day or get hooked on Scrabble. You'll retain more vocabulary.

Besides keeping a thesaurus handy, I also keep a handy little book called 20,000 words. This one simply has the words, their syllable breakdowns and spellings. No definitions. If you half remember a word, but not quite, it's a useful book. Once you are in the ballpark (have first three letters for instance), it is easy to find.

Answer 2

I bought a book some time ago on how to build a larger vocabulary. It is repetitive and has tests at the end of the chapter. It is amazing the amount of new words you remember without difficulty. Most of them you don't use on a day to day basis because people will not understand what your talking about. It is great for writing. Makes it so much easier when your looking for that perfect word.

Answer 3

The best way to remember words is to use them consistently, but that's not always possible without coming off as pretentious. You'll never be able to remember the entire English language, so don't be ashamed of having to look them up. You're still better off than the people who don't know and don't care what words mean.

Answer 4

I suggest reading books and articles with, uhm, broad lexicons. Words read in context have a staying power that words read in dictionaries do not.
The phrasing of your question suggests to me that you have spent a lot of time with reference books. Knowing the definition of a word is not the same as having a solid command of a language.
Take 2 Dickens and call me in the morning.

Answer 5

Use 'em. Your friends might look at you funnily when you drop extemporaneous and diffuse on them, but just say, "Hey, i'm just trying to raise the level of discourse up in this piece." Also, write a list and look at them a few times a day, make a new list each week. Try to incorporate these into your words and speech.

Answer 6

a million. i do no longer keep in mind having my important character swear. She's royalty, so i've got faith as though she could in all danger act a grade above all and sundry in speech. i detect myself aggravated at characters who swear plenty. For me it distracts from what they are incredibly saying. 2. "all of sudden" and "have been". ok purely passive voice many times. 3. i'm nonetheless an novice, yet whilst i became into purely commencing out, i became into dumb sufficient to have faith that persons can critique purely the story and not the spelling and grammar. I even have now come to attain they are one interior an identical. in case you could no longer study the story, then it relatively is not a good tale, era. 4. i in my opinion do no longer do this once I write, yet once I communicate you will pay attention me use words like "Deliciousness" or something like that. i visit additionally use slang words that are specific to my faith. (sure, my faith has it relatively is own slang.) 5. I wasn't conscious that purely became into an adverb. yet i must be incorrect. 6. i'm and that i'm could nicely be utilized interchangeably. i'm is purely a shortened variety of i'm. usually situations you could spell out "i'm" as a thank you to emphasise, and a few varieties of writing (greater technical works as adversarial to inventive) do no longer use i'm, yet grammatically neither is favored over the different.

Answer 7

You do not recall the words that you have "learned" because, in truth, you have not actually learned them. To try and aid yourself in remembering your new vocabulary, attempt to incorporate them into everyday speech. Use them frequently so that you do not forget them. And, as it is in writing, it is not necessarily what words you use, although that will aid you greatly, it is how you know the words that you do use.
Hope this helps!
best of luck to you and your writing!

Answer 8

That is the beauty of the computer. You can keep several windows open at once. One that never closes is Thesaurus.com. Every word you could ever want right there at your fingertips.
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They're, Their, There - Three Different Words.

Careful or you may wind up in my next novel.

Pax - C

Answer 9

I copy the word and its definition down. Then, I read it aloud about four or five times. Finally, I look away from the paper (which I keep, if I ever need it for reference) and recite the definition about two or three times.
It's simple, but effective!

Answer 10

Re-read some of your favorite authors. You will naturally and subconsciously mimic their style and the vocabulary usage. You will then rediscover your own style and the words will return.