inkstains

And excess of anything is never good. It's not good to have the same word pop up fifteen times in one paragraph, but at the same time, as stated above, having to run to get a dictionary fifteen times in one paragraph isn't fun either.

I think it's all in the way that the writing is laid out. First you have to decide what your target audience is. If you're writing for small children using overly large words isn't going to work. If your audience are nuclear physicists, a plethora of monosyllabic words is also likely to be a bad idea.

To be honest, I write the way I speak. When I use five dollar words or phrases it's because that's how I would have said it to anyone who was standing there, but my target audience is generally women between the ages of 21 and 30. The phrasing also changes depending on the character that I am writing. If I'm writing about a child, I try to use words that a child would use. If I'm writing about a 20 year old man the language tends to increase in vulgarity.

Basiclly, the way I look at it, write what you know, and if there is a word that doesn't look like it fits, or could be replaced by a better word, then break out a thesaurus and find the word that fits best. Though, I will say this, it has been my experience that you might want to check the word in a dictionary just to make sure that it does fit with what you are trying to say. Sometimes you think the word fits perfect and then someone is kind enough to point out to you that you have used the word improperly. There is a reason I try to make my sister read over my work before I post it. ^_^;;;;