Heh

[desperance]

I am sitting here making my way through the scribbles on the typescript, making changes; and I have come to that page where "reluctant" and "reluctance" occur four times in a dozen - no, wait [*counts*] - in eight lines. And fond as I am of repetition for effect, that might be overegging the pudding just a little (an offence, I may say, of which I have never been guilty).

I had, apparently, made a little note to myself, presumably to this effect; the fourth occurrence was underlined to draw my attention to it, and there was a squiggle in the margin.

Which I sat for minutes trying to read, eliminating possibilities - sugar? sign? - until there was nothing left, and none of them had meant anything like reluctance. And the really irritating thing was that I remembered writing it, remembered thinking "am I going to be able to read that?" and deciding that of course I could, or at least that the scribble would be sufficient reminder of my thought.

Hah. I have been driven - which I almost never am - to my Roget, to look up synonyms for reluctance; which was no help at all, despite offering lots, including at least one word I didn't know (anyone for renitency?). And I still couldn't think of anything better, or even likely; so I went back to the scribble yet one more time, with Roget still on my mind - and, oh. Yes. I remember. I have written "syn". For "synonym". A prompt to think of one, because I couldn't do it just then.

As it happens, I still can't do it. But at least now I know what it is I cannot do...

Comments

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

*laughs out loud* I *hate* that. Hate it hate it hate it. I end up with notes to myself that say things like "rep! bad writer!" and "rep, must buy a thesaurus" (although I have one, it's just a line from a movie I like) and "could you use that word ANY MORE in one paragraph?"

Stupid writers. :)

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

Fond memories (or not) of Word Perfect: "You have started eight out of the last ten sentences with the word 'but.'

Err, oops.

May I offer up 'hesitant' and 'grudging'?

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Thank you, but it needs to be stronger than that: he is both unwilling and ashamed to admit it. Even - or especially - to himself.

And oh, I remember WordPerfect. It was my WP of choice - as with many writers - for years. But they never really achieved a successful iteration for Linux; and then Microsoft bought into the parent company, and shortly thereafter they abandoned even their unsuccessful iteration (no, gosh, really...?).

[pennski.livejournal.com]

Does it reflect the mood you were in when you wrote that section?

[desperance.livejournal.com]

That is ... unclear. I might just have been feeling poetic. (It's odd how significant mood can be in the making, how there can be 200-word days and 2000-word days, and yet reading back six months later I cannot tell t'other from which; there seems to be no way to tell from the final product.)

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Can you go metaphorical? 'His thoughts slipped away from it, feet dragging, dredging him deeper into avoidance.' Or 'His mind trod water around the subject'. Or something on those lines. Only a lot better than that.
Some words just will not be replaced. Most recently over here I have been desperately trying not to over use 'channel' and 'conduit'. But not, for some reason, 'drain'.

[karenmiller.livejournal.com]

resistant/resistance? Or is that too close, with the 're'