Tuesday's Inspiration - Mark Twain

As Mark Twain once wrote, "The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and lightning bug."

When I read this, I thought how true but I learned one thing here. Since I'm a draft writer I move through a draft in a fairly fast move. When I'm trying to get the bones of the story down I sort of speed write. When I began I used to spend time searching for the right word and often stopped the flow of the story during this search. I used the Thesarus, dictionaries and an etymology book but I lost the flow of the story and had to set it aside. I really believe finding the right word is essential to making a story sing. These days when I come to a place where I can't find the right word I leave a blank space or put the first one that comes to mind with a little note saying find a better word in the body of the story. This note may remain through several drafts until I get to the point of setting through the final draft where I check each scene, each line for the meaning I want.

How do you know when it's the right word? For me it's one of those "Oh, yes" moments and sometimes I voice my opinion aloud. This is fine when I'm alone in the house, but when there are people around, someone always asks what I'm yelling about. "Words," I say. I'm not sure those who don't write understand the idea of the right word at the right time.

I do. How about you? Do you spend time finding the right word to describe what you mean without producing a whole paragraph to find the lightning rather than the lightning bug.

Tuesday's Inspiration

While looking for things that have inspired me in my writing, I found a quote by Mark Twain. "The difference between the right word and the almost-right word is the difference between lightening and the lightening bug." Inspiring, yes, and a dilemma I'm facing at the moment. I have a series called an S word and Seduction. I'm getting ready to write the 5th book in the series and until I find that perfect S word I'll have some trouble starting the story. I do know some things about the characters. He is an attorney. She was a free spirit who is settling down. Death and an infant/toddler brings them together. So far so good.

How to find the perfect word since none has popped into my head. I'll turn to another book that has brought inspiration - the thesarus - that's been on my shelf for ages. This book is all about finding the right word. One of the problems is that I love words and sometimes I get so involved in leaping-from word to word here looking at nuances that I quite forget what I'm looking for. I could also look at a dictionary. There are a lot of words there and once again I get involved in jumping from word to word.

How about you? How do you find the right word rather than the almost-right word? Since words are a writer's best friend choosing among the many we read every day can blow one's mind. If we didn't care about words we wouldn't be writers.