i was reading some of your fics and i love how big your vocabulary is and your use of words is utterly fascinating, ive never read a fic about Shanks before but the fact that it was you i felt like i had to check it out cause i needed to, like i just needed to read your words i like the words you use idk what else to say
Looks at you with big wet eyes... this is very kind of you, it's always shocking to me when people are compelled not by subject (which is what I use mostly to parse fanfiction, guilty!) but by my style... I think it's just irrational insecurity, but I always think of my style as an obstruction--there's of course an argument that all words are obstructions, but I think that's mistaking their purpose, and wanting them to do the work of the mind--to my content, like something I should get around, but I can't, haha, and so have to deal with, and so the same for anyone who reads something I've written.
So, yes, great to hear you like my turn-of-phrase and diction, especially because she and I have a fraught relationship!
I've said this before, but I don't think synonyms exist in the sense of being able to substitute a word for another--every word has a specific utility formed by the way it is used/has been used/you are presently using it! And the same word in different places always means different things. So for me, it's not about using a more complex or a rarer word, though I admit I am tickled by rare and complex words, but rather a more precise word. Unfortunately, precision requires sometimes obscure or specialist vocabulary, which can be distracting but I generally find refreshing, especially if it can replaces several words... and in this way I comfort myself that I don't violate any rules of concision or needfulness (at least in diction, haha). This is also why occasionally in my writing, you might notice that for certain sensory or emotional details I will lapse into a list of approximates--I'm trying to create and define a field to collect or to distinguish something very specific...
I also have never abandoned the trick of looking up and writing down every word that is new to me, though obviously repeated exposure and repeated use and etymological/positional knowledge is really the only way to begin integrating a word so it can actually be put to work. I also don't use thesauruses unless I have a word already in mind that I can't form, or I have a notion that there's a specialist term that must exist but I don't know. I also am always willing to manipulate and unearth words, though I don't ever really stray into invention.
Thanks again--really one of the nicest things I've heard about my work; I like when a thing I'm conscious of/strategic about is noticed . Hope you don't mind the rambling/found it useful or insightful!