Every writer, sorry, every person, cultivates a lexicon: a personal constellation of words and phrase that we instinctively pull from when we speak (or are crafting sentences). Think of it as a linguistic fingerprint, your go-to toolbox, or your brain’s personalized thesaurus. It might lean precise and elegant, or raw and visceral—silly or even didactic; but all familiar phrasing, no matter how effective initially, eventually blunts the power of your words. A stale lexicon will weaken your work.
Why Fresh Language Matters
Great poetry or prose colors the page; it’s filled with fresh language. It defamiliarizes (i.e., it makes familiar phrases strange again—new—causing us to slow down, and reviving their impact). This freshness, this linguistic surprise, shakes readers awake, forcing them to see the ordinary anew.
If your writing feels like it’s lost its pulse, you may be drifting in linguistic autopilot. Our brains are efficient. Our minds are wired to conserve ene…
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