From: mbottorff@lshelby.com   
      
   William Vetter  wrote:   
      
   > > When I think about diction levels in my writing, I'm usually not   
   > > thinking about the reader at all.  I'm thinking about the character I am   
   > > writing as.   
   >   
   > When I write in POV character voices, and the diction level of the   
   > character is modest, I do.  But when the character is well-educated, an   
   > aristocrat of his race, this becomes an issue that I give   
   > consideration.   
   > I think it doesn't matter to send a reader to his dictionary every few   
   > pages, but you lose when you begin to blitz him.   
   >   
   > ...   
   >...this guy was otherwise very agreeable to work   
   > with, but it took me hours to figure out what he was even talking about   
   > when I read his manuscripts.  It was full of lines like   
   > "The substrate was reticulated."   
      
   I have at least one passage where I am deliberately trying to "blitz".   
   It's an example of the Tamul nomad's storytelling tradition, and you   
   only get two sentances before Prince Asond cuts in wanting to know if   
   the intended audience could possibly understand even one word in ten.   
      
   I wrote that bit because someone complained that my Tamul heroine   
   shouldn't know difficult words, when she couldn't read.   
      
   That bothered me.   
      
   Illiterate societies often have very rich, complex and ornate languages.   
      
      
   --   
   Michelle Bottorff -> Chelle B. -> Shelby   
   L. Shelby, Writer  http://www.lshelby.com/   
   Livejournal http://lavenderbard.livejournal.com/   
   rec.arts.sf.composition FAQ http://www.lshelby.com/rasfcFAQ.html   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)