Better to illuminate than merely to shine, to deliver to others contemplated truths than merely to contemplate. ―
How many times have you been lost in reading and come across an absolute kicker of a sentence, one that makes you stop in your tracks and think, ‘Whoa, that was clever!’? Maybe you can even still remember a few of those moments.
Did the line help you focus more on the situation, like a ray of sunshine draws your mind toward whatever it’s illuminating, or did it stand alone in an otherwise forgettable piece of writing? There are few things more satisfying than placing a real zinger in a story. Entire books have no doubt been successfully written around them.
- Make a list of your ten great lines from your WIP or a past book and write them out.
- What do you experience as you write them out?
- A laugh? An image of a character? The overview of a chapter?
- Now ask yourself, does each one enhance the overall structure of the narrative and paint a life-like image or do they stand alone?
To pull the opening quote into greater focus, does the line or quote shine on its own (even to the point of distraction) or does it help light the story’s path and make its inclusion feel inevitable? We’ve all read books that are full of great one-liners, funny comparisons, pithy metaphors, and razor-sharp similes, but light on plot, characterization, and details.
While there’s nothing wrong with sparkling wordplay, we also need to be wary of being so clever distract the reader.