Ask a Published Author: How do you find the right words for a passage?

Sarah Duncan (right) has written five novels, the most recent being  Kissing Mr. Wrong  (shortlisted for the RNA Novel of the Year 2011). She has also taught creative writing at the Universities of Oxford and Bristol.

What do you do when you know what you want to happen in a certain passage of you novel but you just don’t seem to be able to put that into words? Any tips? — Anonymous

If you ever get stuck with a scene, leave it and jump somewhere else. You don’t get extra points for writing in a particular order. Make a few notes on what you want to happen, and then move on. Usually, it’s not coming together because you don’t actually know enough about the characters/story to write it—when you’ve done more writing it’ll be easier. Sometimes it turns out that that scene/passage isn’t really important after all and can be left out.

If you’ve done all that, gone ahead, and now realize that you have to include that scene, then I’d say give yourself permission to write really badly. And I mean really badly. Then have a go at writing something: anything. It can be notes, if that’s how it pitches up on the page. But get something down. Later, you can make it better, but if there aren’t words on the page, you can’t do anything with it. Accept that it will never be as brilliant as the stuff in your head.  That’s writing for you.

Finally, if all else fails, ask yourself two questions:

What can my character see and hear right at this moment?
What do they think about what they can see and hear?  

Then write that, and see where it takes you.

Next week’s head counselor will be Ari Marmell, fantasy author of the Widdershins novels and campaign writer for role-playing games including Dungeons and Dragons.

Ask him your questions here!