All of us possess a reading vocabulary as big as a lake but draw from a writing vocabulary as small as a pond. The good news is that the acts of searching and gathering always expand the number of usable words.

Roy Peter Clark
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All of us possess a reading vocabulary as big as a lake but draw from a writing vocabulary as small as a pond. The good news is that the acts of searching and gathering always expand the number of usable words. When you look for more words to write with, you find more possibilities. When you gather more words to read, you find more ideas and more possibilities. Even if you don’t think there are any new ideas or possibilities in your life, look again and see how many possibilities you might have missed.

Source: Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies For Every Writer

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  1. Everyone should read, we say, but we act as if only those with special talent should write.

  2. All of us possess a reading vocabulary as big as a lake but draw from a writing vocabulary as small as a pond. The good news is that the acts of searching and gathering always expand the number of usable words.

  3. A teacher of mine once said there are no true synonyms.

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