Avoid sounding like everyone else or even yourself

Words and their meanings have perplexed and fascinated me for most of my life.
So many wonderful words exist that it seems a shame not to sample as many as possible. But sometimes, to really get your meaning across, only one will do.
Writers should make it their quest to employ the right words. Even though the thesaurus may list 10 lines of synonyms, Catherine Soanes demonstrates that rarely can you substitute one word for another and have it convey the same meaning.
True, if your reader isn't familiar with such nuances, substituted words might not make any difference... or the reader may get the wrong idea no matter what word you use. But you are not writing for them.
Writers are often tempted to find something different to spice up their copy after they've had to repeat a word, no matter how right. If so, they should at least make the effort to find the next best word.
I guess that's why #TheOldEditor says "Giving a reporter a thesaurus is like giving a toddler a loaded handgun."

Think about the words you use and why you choose them. One writer I work with uses certain words in almost every story; I guess they're supposed to be part of the writer's voice. But if I never read the words "folks," "critter," or "first ever" in a news story again, it will be too soon. "Fire folks" is probably not a good substitution for "fire crew."
But I don't think the writer is thinking about the words themselves. Perhaps they are just thinking about what might sound cool.
Or we get into habits.
I almost wrote the first sentence of this post like this: "Words and their meanings have perplexed and fascinated me all my life." But has it really been "all my life?" Did I come out of the womb contemplating the difference between "your" and "you're?"
No, it's just the kind of thing people say.
Whenever superlatives or extreme words like "always," "never," "all" or "none" pass from your keyboard to the computer screen, you should stop and ask, "Is that really so?"

Some writers might try to up the coolness factor by throwing in some line -- metaphor or phrase -- that they've read elsewhere. Writers throw in terms like "that's a sticky wicket" or "that begs the question" because they've heard others use them. But some meanings aren't intuitive, and the phrases are sometimes used the wrong way (The photo shows a sticky wicket -- a muddy cricket pitch -- at the North Perrott Cricket Club). Just as it's sometimes enlightening to look up the meaning of a common word (I am still occasionally surprised), writers should make sure they understand phrases before they use them.
Other times, writers recycle tired metaphors, which can hinder their efforts to come up with original ideas, something my teachers favored ("Avoid cliches" is tattooed on my left hemispheric cortex, not that I've always heeded it).

Originality is a key part of being a good writer and it applies to both word usage and ideas. But creating an original idea is challenging because so many types of stories have already been written.

Talk about challenging: Anyone who has had to write a holiday story knows what a struggle it can be to avoid the trite, the sappy and the cliche'. The temptation elves are everywhere, which is why the editor of the Baltimore Sun has put out a warning to stay away from the snow-borne sirens that have seduced many a writer: forced riffs on holiday phrases, such as "white stuff," "Bah, humbug," "T'is" and "T'was."

Every writer wants to produce engaging prose. But while you're trying to make those enlightened words flow onto the page, check your word and phrase choices now and then. Then go back through and ask yourself if anything else might work better.