Starting

I've had a few novel ideas floating around in my head for years. I think about them, refine them, mentally write parts of them off and on, here and there, when my mind wanders to them or sudden inspiration strikes.

Yet I've never felt ready to start writing.

I've always been waiting for the right time, for lighting to strike, for some sort of sign that these stories swimming in my mind are ready to be committed on page.

But a few weeks ago, it hit me. There never is going to be a right time. If I wait for the day when a perfectly constructed story simply begins flooding forth from my fingers, I'll be waiting forever. I just need to start—somewhere, anywhere. I just need to write and see where the words take me.

I think about how many people—full-time writers, yes, but also hobbyists who dabble in writing in their limited spare time between full-time jobs and family and a million other commitments. If they can do it, what's my excuse?

Fear, mostly. Fear that what I'll get halfway or even all the way through what I'm writing and realize it's crap. Fear that no one will want to read my words, let alone publish them. Fear that I'll agonize over the finer details of my story for hours upon hours, devote a good portion of my life to writing something I believe in, only to discover it isn't good enough.

But really, who hasn't had that fear?

So I decided to just jump in, word by word, and see where the story takes me. I started a few weeks ago and have only written a little bit here, a little bit there. It's not very much and it's not very consistent, but it's a start.

I'm not sure how often I'll visit here, but on occasion I hope to write about what the process of novel writing is like for a newbie, a beginner. I know it's something lots of people write about, but if nothing else I think writing through my struggles with writing might help me figure things out as I go.

Oh, and the funny thing about this first attempt at novel writing I'm undertaking? It's not even one of the two novels that I've been silently penning without pen for years. It's a completely different story that I've spent a lot less time agonizing over. Rather strange how these things work out, isn't it?

Fancy Words

Recently, the New York Times After Deadline blog posted about the 50 words that most stump Times readers.

There are some words on there I know and enjoy—I love inchoate, sanguine, and feckless. There are some I would most definitely mispronounce if asked to say them aloud—those foreign terms don't always glide off the tongue. There are a few I'm surprised made the list—hubris, overhaul, laconic. And there are more than a few I've had to look up time and again.

Many of the words are the sort that may be difficult to define when taken out of context. But when they're positioned in a sentence in an article with a specific focus and even tone, I find the information around those tricky words give enough clues for me to muddle through the meaning or at least understand the point the writer is trying to make.

The beauty of reading the Times on the Internet, however, is that I don't have to muddle through. All I have to do is double-click on the word in question and voila! I have a definition from the American Heritage Dictionary.

In the blog post, the question is raised as to whether such words should be used if readers don't understand them or know what they mean.

As Philip B. Corbett writes in the blog post:

But even the most studious readers are likely to stumble over at least some of these words. I don’t suggest banning any of them — in some cases they may be the perfect choice, and we refuse to talk down to readers or dumb down our prose.

Still, we should remember that this is journalism, not philology. Our readers, smart as they are, are often in a hurry. They may be standing on the subway or skimming a story over breakfast. Let’s not make them work any harder than necessary.

It's a good point to remember whether you're writing a news brief or a magazine feature. Beautiful language can enhance any article. But used thoughtlessly or excessively, it does little more than hinder readers and mask the information your article seeks to provide.

Not sure about using a certain word or phrase? If all else fails, remember Strunk & White's timeless advice:

"Avoid the elaborate, the pretentious, the coy, and the cute. Do not be tempted by a twenty-dollar word when there is a ten-center handy, ready and able."