"Is That Lisp Absolutely Necessary?"

-Sophie Jenkins, House of Many Ways

This is a bit of a sequel to my characterization post.
One thing I've been experimenting with in my writing is to somehow keep the reader connected with the main character. To get inside their head. One way that I think one can do this is in the vocabulary they write with.
If your character is a super genius, don't use words like "very" or "big" unless the character is likely to, too, even outside of dialogue. If you're writing from the POV of a five-year-old, however, "big" and "Very" are perfectly appropriate (unless your five-year-old IS a super genius).
This is where my dilemma comes in: you've reach my first two posts of my story, so you should know Jason's personality--as far as vocab goes--is not the brightest bulb in the socket compared that five-year-old. He's the sort of guy who when asked to give a synonym for "big" says, "Large, and uh... huge, and... ...huge?"
And so here's me, the kind of person who uses "surreptitiously" in every day conversation, having to find other ways to describe things. One trick that I'm being forced to learn is connotation. Instead of using pure vocabulary to tell how horrible a car crash was(e.g.), I'll use my character's reaction to show the carnage and using brevity--allowing my readers' imaginations to run away with it--to make if all the more horrific.
Now, anyone who knows me knows brevity is not my strong suit. But this Blog is about improvement, right?