Wrestling with Words: The Writer’s Eternal Struggle (first printed by Crime Writers of Canada October 2025 Newsletter for Southwestern Ontario)

Writers use many tools to guide their work. A synonym, a definition, spell-check, and even the more recent use of Artificial Intelligence. These tools shape the writer’s work by influencing how they think about language, reminding us that words carry weight, history, and subtle shades of meaning.

The dictionary helps us to understand the meaning or etymology of a word through time. The first dictionaries were created by the Akkadian Empire of ancient Mesopotamia in the 24th century BCE. China and India followed suit. The Greeks documented difficult words found in the work of Homer and other poets. The Romans developed glossaries of archaic Latin or translations from Greek to Latin. The Oxford English Dictionary began in 1857 and was completed in 1928, setting the stage for modern dictionaries and for documenting the evolution of words. Merriam-Webster published a dictionary that reflects contemporary English usage in the United States. Finally, we turn to online dictionaries, which provide definitions and etymologies of words in seconds while the hard-copy dictionary gathers dust on our shelves or perhaps ends up in a bin at the thrift store.

Like the dictionary, a thesaurus helps us vary our vocabulary, changing a word that becomes clearer and more precise. Each word has a slight difference, its use accordingly nuanced. Peter Mark Roget, a British physician and polymath, compiled synonyms of thousands of words. He released Roget’s Thesaurus in 1852. Technology has taken over the physical copy. Like the dictionary, synonyms are spat out online so quickly, writers wonder what they did before the internet.

If the above are alternatives to words and definitions, then where does AI come in? AI is anathema to many writers. As we toil and struggle over each word and sentence, AI can produce a fairly coherent text within seconds, combing the internet for information on whatever subject. While perhaps helpful in pointing someone in the right direction, many of us believe AI is overtaking individual creativity and thought. The tenets of research are disappearing because it’s easy to get information online very quickly. AI can even create an entire book in minutes, if not seconds.

Ask the correct question, and you will receive a lot of information. But it is not without risk — consider the use of grammar, syntax, and vernacular. The dictionary and the thesaurus are still reliable tools, perhaps not as quick, but isn’t the reality of a writer to struggle with words and sentences instead of taking the easy way out and risking their reputation?

As writers, these tools, even AI, are not just resources but also as companions to their work. Writers are not alone when they write — words live in these aids and have supported them throughout the millennia, reminding them that words have histories, that meanings evolve, and that language is never fixed. Wrestling with language is part of the craft which leads to emerging styles, voice, and authentic expression.