Improving my writing

[wetair]

theepicwinner:

May I then ask if you have read Twilight? I haven't read many English novels, but I have read Twilight and there I found some words difficult and I had to look them up. I'm not sure if some of her words are a little university degree-ish, but I know that her books is written for teenagers, and I am way past that stage and still not understanding those words.

So, usually I'll find a synonyme of a word in the Thesaurus, then I'll check the definition of it to see if it is misplaced or not, then I'll decide weather to use it or not.

But here is my weak spot. Since I think Norwegian when I write (and Norwegian is a very limited language) I have to translate the words directly to English. In Norwegian you can have 2 synonyms for a word that you in English may have 6 synonyms for. So I have to be a little more creative writing in English rather than in Norwegian. In Norwegian I could write "appears" in most sentences. "She appears to be angry", "it appears to be cold outside" etc. While in English the word "seems" might be more appropriate in some of the cases. And last I checked "seems" and "appears" are quite regular words in the English language, and I have to admit that when I started writing 7 months ago, I actually had to look that up *shame*...

Here are some of the words I had to look up from Twilight. Are these regular words, because I am really curious about that? (I do know the meaning of them now).
Incandescent
Scintillating
Disconcerting
Facets
Iridescent
Cadences
Circuitous
Acerbic
Exuberant
Chasm

yeah the thinking in one language and translating to a different language - that didn't work out so well for me in french.

they are not words that come up in everyday conversation, but I don't think they are overly fancy words, either. They don't show up all that often in my own writing, either.

[polymath]

Incandescent
Scintillating
Disconcerting
Facets
Iridescent
Cadences
Circuitous
Acerbic
Exuberant
Chasm

They are regular words, equivalent to U.S. English eleventh grade vocabulary on a readabiltiy index. Facets, cadences, and chasm are noncomplex words, the other seven are complex words.

Judging by your methods though, apparently chronicling new vocabulary words, you're approach is the more effective one to language mastery, record unfamiliar words, look them up, use them in writing and speech. Master the language. It works for all ages.

[ninafromnorway]

That's what I thought. I'll keep noting them down and learning these to me somewhat unfamiliar words.

[bcomet]

I love this topic. Really good info here. Thanks.

[sarahdee]

Is there a British or American society nearby?

I lived for a long time in Luxembourg and there were several expat societies. Through one of these I managed to find a monthly book club which while not a writing course, would give you access to English reading people discussing books in English which might help? I was just an English person looking to discuss books and get recommendations in my own language but several of the members worked for the International schools and might have useful contacts. Or might be interested in beta reading etc

Just an idea...

:)