This is kind of nitpicky, but honestly what else is the Dope for? Sometimes when I’m writing, I’ll think of multiple ways to structure a sentence, and then I’m stuck on deciding which one is best for way too long. Kind of like the opposite of writer’s block, but not in a good way.
For example, “As my grandmother likes to say…” could easily be “As my grandmother says…”. The latter has a nice economy of language but the former paints a more detailed picture (she doesn’t just say it, she likes to say it). Which one would you go with?
That’s just an example; my point is that with so many options, does anyone else get frustrated and have trouble deciding which one is “right”? How do you know?
When I get stuck on how to phrase something, I usually stop and try to tell my story to an imaginary person, sometimes even speaking it out loud. This usually gives you the most natural phrasing, since you’re thinking about the best way to tell the story, rather than the specific phrasing.
The other option is just to write it quickly, getting all of the ideas down on paper without thinking about the wording. Then re-read it, and the parts that are badly phrased should stick out and you can rework them.
Funny you say that; this is actually for a play, not a novel or short story. So it will be spoken aloud, eventually. I probably should have mentioned that, but to me they both still sound correct, and I seem to run into this problem often.
I like your idea of writing quickly, though! Same principle as “Write now, edit later”, I suppose.
There’s a program you can use that will start erasing your work if you take too long. I don’t recommend it as a general thing, but it works for some people.
Tell yourself that a thing worth doing is worth doing badly. Sometimes it’s only after you’ve got the meat of a story complete that you can really concentrate on establishing different voices for different characters. In your example, whether to add the ‘like’ will depend on the attitude of the character saying the line and how they feel about the person they’re talking about.
If you want to remember that you were of two minds about a line, you can include both: “As my grandmother (likes to say)/(says)…”. There was probably a reason that you added the ‘likes’. By the time you can look at the whole story, you’ll be in a position to judge whether it adds something or whether it interferes with the flow.
As the guys on Writing Excuses like to say - nobody is ever going to see your first draft.
I’m really bad about this. I wrote a novel that is going to shake out around 110,000 words, but I easily have 500, 000 words on the cutting room floor, 30 drafts of every chapter, obsessing over short passages for weeks. I don’t delete anything, I copy and paste it into a document called “scraps for… X Chapter” and so I just have this file for every chapter filled with pieces of dialog, mini scenes, slightly different turns of phrase and more often than not I dip back into that well, snip and switch ad nauseum. The upshot is four years working on the same book. It’s not just word possibilities but scene and character possibilities.
I have a theory that I’m neurologically incapable of separating writing from editing. I’m left-handed and I suspect I use both hemispheres of my brain equally. I recently found a writer friend who I discovered writes the exact same way… She’s also left handed.
Sometimes it takes me hours to make a single post on this board.
In that case, don’t think about what sounds correct, think about what sounds like what the character who would be saying it would actually say. Not that that necessarily is any easier.
But characters can express themselves in any number of ways. Certainly I don’t always use the exact same language when I say things. There’s not always an obvious best choice.
Not usually an issue with me. I write what comes to mind first and usually stick with it – at least on the first draft. My suggestion is to do the same and don’t get bogged down on it.
There are no objective answers to questions like these.
As a writer you should be thinking at all times about the effect you’re trying to create. With fiction, you should consider not only the best way to get the idea across, but how the words fit with character and advance the narrative. With a spoken line you need to think about the character’s personality, education, and circumstances. How does that particular character speak? Does he or she tend to be wordy or concise? Also, are you trying to direct the reader’s attention to something?
In the OP’s example, there’s no way of knowing which choice is better without context. Again, choose the words according to the desired effect. If you don’t know the desired effect, figure it out and choose the words based on your decision.