It's been so long since I've written fiction that each sentence is painstaking. (It doesn't help that I'm writing in a very high-English tone - I rarely speak that way and I find myself struggling for the just right word.) I'm beginning to suspect the poor squirrels in my brain have keeled over and died. Their tiny muscles atrophied (rather quickly, too - the smaller, the quicker, right?) and they just fell off the treadmill.
I must not write about squirrels.
I must not write about squirrels.
I must not write about squirrels.
My novel is now titled ("The Deadliest Arrow"), word-counted (varies, but I'm currently at 1371), and synopsised (or is that synopped? "The story of Achilles, as told by the five women who loved him."). Short and sweet. I should write more of it... it's pretty good, I think.
I'm having a hard time with choosing the right words, too, but for the opposite reason. My novel is currently dominated by 19th century slave dialect and my English grammar siren is constantly going off in my head!
ReplyDeleteIt's so difficult to write in dialect. If you misspell for emphasis, you generally lose your audience. But if you overuse grammatical misconstructions (instead of phonetic spelling), the audience suffers again. The best example I've ever seen of vivid, easily-written dialect was in "The Color Purple" by Alice Walker:
ReplyDelete"The way you know who discover America, Nettie say, is think bout cucumbers. That what Columbus sound like. I learned all about Columbus in first grade, but look like he the first thing I forgot. She say Columbus come here in boats call the Neater, the Peter, and the Santomareater. Indians so nice to him he force a bunch of 'em back home with him to wait on the queen."