Post History

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/27446
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I recommend three pillars: 1. Practice 2. Thesaurus 3. Drafting

1. The more you write, the better your writing will become. This means finding the best word, and the best order to put the words in.

2. Thesaurus. Personally I don't think a writer should ever use a thesaurus to find a word you don't already know - that's the sort of use that gives thesaurus use a bad name. However, in exactly the situation you describe above, I think a thesaurus is perfect. Type in the word you know isn't quite right, and browse until you find the one (which you already knew), that is.

3. Drafting. I think it's best to first write any old words to get the gist and the feel of the story down, rather than getting bogged down on finding the right word, when you may end up cutting the entire scene anyway. Then every time you do a reiteration see if a better word springs to mind, or use the thesaurus, as mentioned above.

Original score: 9