It’s not a term you hear very often. I like it. It sounds clever and sure of itself. Full of carefully crafted assertion, drawn from years of experience and natural talent.
It conjures up an image of jumbled words streaming past. They haphazardly jostle for position, before being deftly plucked from the air by the master of words, in just the right order, and placed in their rightful home on a page.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines a wordsmith as, ‘a skilled user of words.’ It’s a short and simple description. There’s seemingly nothing complicated about the meaning.
Yet, being a wordsmith is not straighforward. It is complex and difficult to pull words out of the ether and assemble them in an order so that they make sense to the reader. It requires a great deal of effort to portray the correct message, in the appropriate tone, and keep the reader interested, simultaneously.
Is it a word that I would use to describe myself?
Does it sound a little pretentious and perhaps, slightly twee and old hat?
Maybe. But it’s also a word that depicts precision and skill, dexterity and professionalism. And I’m happy to be associated with that.
Suzy Pope is a versatile lifestyle writer with a background in PR. If you would like help with a writing project, please get in touch.
