Absolutely love this post. Makes the re-writing or ‘un-writing’ seem less daunting, and FUN!! In the process of re-writing several things myself and I’m tired of questioning it…but as girl and duck says…stay true to yourself 🙂 Thank you!!!
Writers love words. Not just for what they do—create entire universes. They love them as individuals.
Most writers (and editors) will blush with delight when handed a dictionary. They enjoy nothing more than ‘word talk’. Who likes pernickety, lilting, lumber, moot?
Moot is a queer word. Queer is a great word that’s taken on a life of its own. Lilting? Is there much call for it? Lumber. The noun is ho-hum. But it’s a terrific verb. Pernickety is lovely to say but, really, it belongs to Jane Austen.
And so on.
Words also drive writers to despair. There’s a famous story about James Joyce. According to the story, a friend came to visit Joyce and found him slumped across his desk.
‘What’s wrong?’ asked the friend.
‘It’s the work,’ said Joyce, without raising his head.
‘How many words did you get today?’ asked the friend.
‘Seven,’ muttered Joyce.
‘But that’s great,’…
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