"The difference between the almost right word & the right word is really a large matter--it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning."
-Mark Twain
I've been marinating over this quote since I took a class from Sara Eden at the LDStorymakers conference. She taught us about description and how the wrong word can haunt you throughout your entire book...lurking over your shoulder and throwing off the flow. Whereas, the right word, moves the plot forward in the direction that you want. It is liberating and gives your manuscript the crisp details that make a good story come to life.
The power of the word is unfathomable. As I've been revising my book, I have seen this first hand. It was so thrilling last night when I cut a 12 word sentence to 7 by trimming the fat and throwing out 5 non-essential words. I replaced those 5 with one word - snap. Am I a nerd to get so excited about this? It's a small thing, replacing 5 words, but it gave my plot the slight pivot and shift that it needed.
Sara
2 comments:
I love this Sara! That is such a great quote (we may need to add it to the side bar :) If you are a nerd I am too. I had a paragraph giving me fits the last two days. It wanted to grow wild and refused all my attempts to tame it. But I let it sit and it finally came to me. Hallelujah. The write words do matter.
You go girl!! I'm way excited for you! Thanks for sharing your blog! I can't wait to see what you post next! :)
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