Write, re-write, moan, whinge, nag, nag, whittle, tweak, nag, grumble about my thesaurus' inadequate lexicon, nag, scribble, nag, wake up yelling and grab for note-pad...
Iterate grimly until either the right 'turn of phrase' is found, or I re-write the entire section to make the problem go away...
Um, I'll usually glance back over a story while I'm extending it. I'll change a few words, re-arrange a sentence or two for each paragraph I add. Sometimes I change around a lot more than I add...
It does tend to suppress some of the spontaneity...
FWIW, I seem to have clawed clear of my 'Curious Cases' log-jam: Tale just hit Notepad's free-flow limit at ~108 kb text-file, which Word claims is ~19,300 words. Printed in my preferred 12pt Arial, the chunk is 39 sides...
Plot and characters interacting nicely, my research is bearing bizarre fruit, and the story is moving along...
Joined: 07 Sep 2007 Posts: 523 Location: Upstate New York
Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2007 3:43 pm
In terms of my poetry, there are times that getting just the right word is vital. If I need something specific to save my rhyme or metre, I usually agonise over the word for minutes, hours, or even days (perhaps a bit of an exaggeration). I scour my multiple dictionaries and thesauruses looking for that right word.
I've been known to do this, to a lesser exent, with my prose as well.
Do I eventually decide on a compromise? Perhaps, if nothing else seems to work right, I'll settle upon a word. However, word choice can make or break a poem, so I had better make sure all the words work the way they should. _________________ "I'm going to do what the warriors of old did. I'm going to recite poetry!"
Vio, say what you have to say. No writer in the world knows every word, so there is always the possibility that there is a better word than the one you used. But is there a better word for you, for your writing? You can rewrite, revise and reword a sentence to a point that all the life has been drained from it. Using a thesaurus constantly absolutely shows in a story.
I have a number of books on words and linguistics. About once a week, I'll kill an hour or so thumbing through one of them, or a dictionary, or an old thesaurus. If I find a word I didn't know previously, a word that "fits" with me, I'll do my best to remember it. However, nothing looks worse than a story that looks to be as "cut and pasted" as a kidnapper's ransom letter!
Your words are your words as much as your stories are your stories. Don't try to shoehorn an alien expression into them.
Joined: 21 Apr 2006 Posts: 649 Location: NSW, Australia
Posted: Fri Nov 30, 2007 6:38 pm
I've found acting out the part/scene I'm trying to write often helps, as it puts it into "real world" terms and sometimes gets over that word hurdle you've run into.
Joined: 31 Oct 2007 Posts: 203 Location: Vancouver, Canada
Can't put it into words
Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2007 12:52 am
I figure there is rarely the 'perfect' word. It's more a bad-medium-good-better-bestIcanthinkup situation.
If I can't find a word that's better than medium, I change the sentence, go at it from another angle. If that doesn't work, I just leave it in and come back to it later.
I have, on occasion, been unable to find the word I really want. In that case, I just shrug my shoulders and leave bestIcanthinkup in there, and hope it's only me being too self-critical.
Of course, being a playwright, sometimes that means I have to listen, over and over again, to someone repeating a line that bothers me. This is a spur to work even harder next time. If it really, Really, REALLY bothers me, I sometimes change it, but this does not impress the actors. Unless they didn't like it either, in which case everyone is happy.
Joined: 03 Apr 2006 Posts: 318 Location: Milwaukee, WI
Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2007 6:32 pm
I'll write something like: "scene requires such-and-such description, but having trouble coming up with the right word." I highlight that sentence in yellow and move on. Many times the right word is on the tip of my tongue but I can't for the life of me get it to come out, so I highlight the passage and move on hoping at a later time the word will come to me. It usually does. Sometimes it never comes and I end up rewriting the paragraph with compromise words.
I often run into the trouble where there will be a word I want to use "right on the tip of my tongue" but I won't be able to find an actual word to meet the urge. _________________ Violet "Violanthe" Kane
[email protected] ARWZ.com: A Magazine of Alternative Reality Fiction
Well, sometimes, because I've studied a bunch of different languages, it will turn out that the word I'm looking for isn't English, and thus of no use to me in writing. _________________ Violet "Violanthe" Kane
[email protected] ARWZ.com: A Magazine of Alternative Reality Fiction
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