I asked a group of my Austin writing pals for their favorite quotes about writing. For Brain Yansky, he turns to Mark Twain‘s excellent quote about choosing the exact right word because “I have to keep reminding myself to pay attention to sentences. It’s so easy to be inattentive or lazy. There are a lot of words  to worry about in a novel, after all. But when I think about this quote and work on getting just the right word it does often light up a scene and help me find other right words.”

Here is Mark Twain’s wisdom:
“The difference between the almost right word and the right word is the difference between the lightening bug and the lightening.”

The quote itself is an act precision, zeroing in on just the right metaphor to illuminate (ahem) his meaning. Thank you, Brian, for sharing your thinking.

Brian’s latest book is Alien Invasion and Other Inconveniences which I just finished reading. Please come back on Friday when I will talk about the book.