Bombastic—
*(of speech, writing, etc.) high-sounding; high-flown; inflated.
Pretentious—
*refers specifically to language that is purposely inflated in an effort to impress.
Verbose—
*characterizes utterances or speakers that use more words than necessary to express an idea.
…all killers when attempting to write something that a wide range of people can relate to and connect with.
So, I think that what I’m beginning to learn is that brevity coupled with simple diction wrapped around profound meaning is the key to success if you want to be a writer.
Whew. I’m glad I got all that figured out. Easy enough, right?
Wait…what about that profound meaning part? How is that supposed to work? How is a writer supposed to take top shelf items down and casually place them on the bottom shelf for everyone to easily reach? For that matter, how is anyone (orator, writer, educator) expected to unpack all of the difficult terms and phrases we use in order to convey meaning which is palatable and objectively significant?
My attempt to accomplish the “shelf reorg” is via metaphor…and it drives some people crazy. I don’t realize I’m doing it most of the time. It seems as if I am so visual that even non-visual concepts such as compassion, grace, and benevolence take up residence in my head via images which later show up as metaphors. I’m pretty sure that if you took away my ability to understand the world via metaphor, simile, or implied comparison I’d be spending my days sitting in a corner wearing a diaper and drooling a lot….it’s really that bad.
My world makes perfect sense to me.
BUT….
Is this world I’ve grown accustomed to a construct of my imagination or is it real? If it’s real and I see some things that others don’t then I have something to contribute via populating the bottom shelf (see, I just did it again). If it’s all my own little construct then I’m wasting people’s time with my ideas that don’t necessarily have any value.
How does one know which is which? And if there is no way to determine one from the other then how can we every discuss absolutes, truth, and reality?
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In what ways do you think that your perception of the world is unique?
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