Hello writers. Welcome to November. This is the beginning of the holiday shopping season—which can be overwhelming. I have the antidote for you.

This month, spend some time word shopping. Words are entirely free, and there’s a nearly endless supply of them available to us in the things that we read or online sources. Like an online thesaurus.

I like to use one called WordHippo, because it has “hippo” in the title and that’s fun. It sets the tone for this kind of word shopping adventure.

How to shop

Here’s how it works. When you write this month—whether an email or a blog post, a social media post, a report, a chapter of your book—look at what you’ve done and find one word that you want to upgrade.

Maybe it’s a boring adjective like “big” or “new.” Perhaps it’s a word that you use often or repeat. Or a vague word like “thing.” Maybe it’s a bit of bloated jargon.

Find one word that you could upgrade. Then, go shopping!

Open up a thesaurus and look at the different options available to you, and the different feelings that those words give you. Then pick something that’s shorter, sharper, or showier.

And unexpected word choice can set your work apart from the oodles of “me-too” content, whether it’s generated by human beings or AI. It can surprise the reader, or make a stronger connection with them. Or, it might change the voice or tone of the work just that little bit.

As you do this this month, make a note of the words you have added and those that have swapped out. By the end of the month, you will have more working vocabulary that might be interesting. If nothing else, I hope you will had fun.

Share your finds

If you want to send me some of the words you have found and enjoyed, I will share them in my email this month.

Happy word shopping!