The difference between the right word and the almost-right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug.
~ Mark Twain
For your born writer, nothing is as healing as the realization that he has come upon the right word.
~ Catherine Drinker Bowen
Fill your pages with details. Work hard to get the right word.
~ Robert Littell
How important is the right word to you? How much time do you spend trying to find it? Is there anything--plot, characters, tension, etc.--that trumps that right word for you in terms of value to your writing?
Go on, share. I'm curious.
I think it's all things in balance. The right words can be what creates just the right impression of that character. I enjoy a good variety of words, but sometimes if I choose a more unusual one it's quite jarring and throws the reader out (as CPs have said!) I'm actually posting on this for IWSG tomorrow!
ReplyDeleteHi Giulie .. what a great chart ... I don't write into stories/novels etc .. but love the concept of the chart and I struggle to remember what I want to say sometimes .. too much going on in the brain I suspect ...
ReplyDeleteCheers Hilary
Awesome! Thanks for sharing! So much usefulness in a single jpg.
ReplyDeleteWonderful pie chart. I use Visual Thesaurus, on online wonder of word choices. And, yes, I spend a lot (inordinate, undue, unreasonable, unjustifiable, unwarrantable, disproportionate, unwarranted, unnecessary, needless, uncalled for, gratuitous, exorbitant, extreme; outrageous, immoderate, extravagant, intemperate) amount of time looking for the right word. Poets are known to do this, too, as the right word may have much more meaning than just its literal interpretation. And the way the word fits the others and the cadence of the sentence is imperative.
ReplyDelete