I have many reference books in my writing arsenal. Many in which I turn to daily for one reason or another. But there are times when that ‘one’ word eludes me and no amount of searching helps. That one perfectly perfect word escapes my thoughts and no matter how many books I drag out, it never comes. Sure there are words that will work but the one whispering to me in the back of my mind slinks away to depths unknown. This one perfect word, the one that would make the entire passage come together and cause all the anguish and joy you’re feeling to explode on the page and make it all worthwhile, is hidden. Locked away, never to be seen. Does one ever find that one perfectly, perfect word?
I’m editing and in my hated task is the chore of finding the right words to make everything I’ve done come together. To blend each new line with the next, a seamless sting of perfectly perfect words that make the story flow and progress to the conclusion.
I’m not sure one ever finds this word. No matter how many times I go over a manuscript, I always find new words to use instead of the one I wrote. You change and add until what you feel is on paper. Until your characters are living, breathing entities that cry and laugh and whose emotions bleed through the page and affect you profoundly.
But is it ever enough? Do you ever truly find the word you were searching for? Some do. Some have a knack for it. Others of us struggle. We struggle to find that one word that changes the lives of your characters and leaves them permanently altered.
I’ll keep searching for that perfectly, perfect word. I only hope that one day, it finds me in return.
LOL, I love it when the character finds the perfect words, me, I’m always changing words, right up til the last moment. As for habit words, every writer has a fav, even male writers, you’ll see the word over and over to describe something and know it is a word they must love. The two magic things about a book are the first line and the last. Though I think Lous L, the western writer actually said the first line sells the story, the last line sells the next book or something like that. First line creates a desire to read the rest, the last line should make you sigh. It’s so very hard to get the image from your mind to the page perfectly, but sometimes we can find just the right word to make it vivid. Good luck, it will come to you.