The Importance of Defamiliarizing Words
The latest Glimmer Train bulletin is available, and I love this piece by Kevin Haworth on why he started to read poetry to improve his fiction: I understood what my…
The latest Glimmer Train bulletin is available, and I love this piece by Kevin Haworth on why he started to read poetry to improve his fiction:
I understood what my professor meant about extending my vocabulary, not just with new, fancy words, but by going back to what I already knew and making each word work harder. I understood how important it was to defamiliarize each word we use, shake off its rust and let it shimmer with meaning. I have tried to write that way ever since.
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Jane Friedman is a full-time entrepreneur (since 2014) and has 20 years of experience in the publishing industry. She is the co-founder of The Hot Sheet, the essential publishing industry newsletter for authors, and is the former publisher of Writer’s Digest. In addition to being a columnist with Publishers Weekly and a professor with The Great Courses, Jane maintains an award-winning blog for writers at JaneFriedman.com. Jane’s newest book is The Business of Being a Writer (University of Chicago Press, 2018).
