I like to use a lot of words when, really, just one would do the business. Drown with adjectives, spray with verbs, douse 'em in nouns, finally sprinkle with polysyllables, and trust to the heavens that whoever it is listening or reading leaves impressed (minority of instances), or flicks on that blank-faced stare before saying what was that all about?

Thumb that dictionary and release those imprisoned words that's my mantra. But when I baffle at least it's the volume and word order rather than the obscurity of the words themselves that are the roadblocks to any kind of understanding. You have to wade through the treacle here.

Will Self is the obverse: great penmanship, delicate sentencing...that lexicon though...where's that come from ? There's capsule sized review of his on the back of The Wild Places by Robert Macfarlane that's laudatory - it's a great book and nothing less deserved - where he's acclaimed it as "...a beautifully modulated call from the wild, that will ensorcell..." That will what ? I've never heard that word. Put a hit counter on that and I doubt it'll rack more than a few score hits in as many years. You could probably infer from the sorcell bit that's it suggesting otherworldly charms (it does mean that actually), but why not just say it's bewitching, strangely endearing ?

Confound with a snowstorm of words, or just one hard to fathom. What a choice.