Comment on 5 Tips on POV by Droemar
I definitely think diction is a very overlooked element of writing when it comes to new writers. They don't think about what their word choice means in terms of each word being a stitch that makes up the fabric of the story's tapestry. But it should be paid quite a bit of attention, because it's so important to your world-building.
Kudos for paying attention to it!
Kudos for paying attention to it!
I was first introduced to diction in high school Literature. They never gave a good definition of it, so I had to find one by research. The problem is, sometimes you can't deferant diction when you first notice it, or there really isn't any real diction difference when you at writing at first, but there is a rule to showing how a teenager speaks and how a college professor speaks, that's why it gets disconcerting when you watch a movie were all of the characters have either engrossingly fake accents or sound like they came from the US when the movie is situated in the middle of Scotland, or when you hear modern slang in a movie that's supposed to be in the 1940's, like that one scene in "Pearl Harbor", when Ben Affleck or whoever says "You're the man!" It's highly distracting in a movie that's supposed to be a historical account unless it's done for parody.
I have to confess I don't recall much of what I learned in high school English class, mostly because what it had to teach I already knew, because I read so much. I mean, when people can't grasp grammar, they're in a lot more trouble than not knowing diction. I remember being disappointed that we wouldn't read and break apart Watership Down, but in hindsight, that was probably for the best.
Like history class, English class always made things so dull, when in reality, they really weren't. Reading and the art of storytelling and clear communication are wicked cool, and part of everyday life. But man, they made it seem like it was slow torture.
And, yes, I hate hearing pop culture references and contemporary colloquialisms in times that had no idea of either.
Like history class, English class always made things so dull, when in reality, they really weren't. Reading and the art of storytelling and clear communication are wicked cool, and part of everyday life. But man, they made it seem like it was slow torture.
And, yes, I hate hearing pop culture references and contemporary colloquialisms in times that had no idea of either.
I actually learned more about storytelling from college than I did in high school. And surprisingly most of the classes I took were not actual storytelling classes, but rather classes on how to create character and design worlds and story, as well as analyzing character motive and ideas. It was actually a better class on how to tell stories than see what makes a story a story.