Thinking Like a Writer: Finding the Words

For Mark Twain, “The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.”

For Mary Shelley, it is the difference between creature and being. We can see her deliberation in the excerpt (at left) of her Frankenstein manuscript, where she makes a choice that best reflects the book she intends to write. For her, the novel’s artificial human was not simply a creature. That word, which means something created, usually refers to animals. ...