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PSA: Thesaurus sneaks into my second drafts every time
Was rereading last night's draft about a guy getting lost in a corn maze. Kept swapping 'walked' for 'ambled' and 'said' for 'murmured'. Then I realized I was just covering up a boring scene with fancy words. How do you stop yourself from dressing up weak writing instead of fixing it?
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barbara96711d ago
David said "fix the action, not the words." That's the whole truth right there. If your scene is boring, dressing it up with fancy words just hides the problem. I learned this the hard way after "elegantly strolling" through three pages of nothing. Now I just write "walked" and move on. Fix the scene first, then maybe swap one word if it really needs it.
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david12311d ago
Wait, why are you treating your first draft like it's supposed to be perfect... that's the whole point of a second draft, right? The first draft is just getting the story down, even if it's boring. Then in the second draft you figure out what actually needs to happen. Instead of swapping out plain words for fancier ones, try cutting the whole scene and rewriting it from scratch. If you're reaching for a thesaurus, it's a sign the scene itself is broken. Fix the action, not the words.
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