Is there an Author battle going on using obscure words?

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Sometimes there's a "right" word for something, but that word is obscure. It's the author's job to not only tell a story in a way that makes sense to readers, but also tell a story in the "truest" way possible. For example, I was reading a story when the word "unctuous" came up. A new character had been introduced and the author described him to have "an unctuous voice."

Now, I have no idea what unctuous meant at the time, so I had to look it up. Unctuous means: "Excessively or ingratiatingly flattering; oily: anxious to please in an unctuous way." Now, I LOVE that word, because there's so much meaning crammed into that one word. I could almost hear that voice because I know what it means.

The job of a writer is to tell the most truth with the least number of words. Sometimes a writer has to choose between telling something accurately, by using a less-known word, or they have to take a bit of time out of the narrative to describe something in a way that more people will understand.

Sometimes, you use the unknown word because it's the right word. Other times, you simply use a different word because you don't want people to be sitting there going "what the heck is this writer trying to say?"

Now, I really hate when writers just pour in the ridiculously overcomplicated words like sauce over spaghetti. Choosing a word just for the sake of using a complicated word is like—gah, I want to use a word but it's not really 'safe' for Y!A—it's literary self-pleasure, it's cheap, and it's meaningless.

That's my opinion at least....Show more

"Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word. There are no exceptions to this rule."
— Stephen King...Show more