Yeah, choosing the perfect words. Sometimes, just to get past the hurdle of that perfect word or phrase that your brain left out, you force another part of your brain to throw something in from memory that almost fits the meaning. Of course, there’s always the Thesaurus or a Flip Dictionary, but I feel like I’m cheating when I use that to come up with a word–although I do use them to confirm the suitability of something I’ve already written down. After all, I don’t want to look like a total idiot.
And sometimes, just leaving the piece for a few hours and going back to it after a good night’s sleep produces the magical phrase. I use this one little trick in editing (among others) when I’m reading. If something bothers me after a couple readings, I’ll highlight it in red and make it obvious that this does need to be fixed. That way, it’s sure not to get overlooked and mark me as being lazy or sneaky in trying to let it get by.
Did some more work this morning on a story, now cut down to 850 words from its original 1010. All those extra words? I don’t miss them.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology