In my last post, I talked about the fact that aspiring writers are told “you have to write one million bad words before you can write one good one.”  I just hope the value of words doesn’t change like the dollar, because that could easily become “you have to write one billion bad words…” (right??)

Here’s an example of what I mean:

Example sentence –  first try – Her hand reached over to pick up the plate off the display table, and then purposefully, she let the antique drop to the floor, shattering the blue and green glass into irreparable fragments.

Example sentence – second try – She held the antique glass plate in her hand, letting it casually slip from her fingers and hit the floor with a crash, broken beyond repair.

Example sentence – third try – The antique glass plate, made of blue and green glass, was priceless, but no matter, she picked it up and intentionally let it fall to the floor, scattering into hundreds of pieces, broken beyond repair.

You see what I mean?  And I could keep on twisting and changing it, using different words, but which sentence would be considered better?  What if it were the opening sentence of a story, which one would catch the eye of an agent?  They are so close, yet they say more or less the same thing.  (personally, I like sentence three)

However, one is apt to stand out beyond the rest to the practiced eye.  It would draw a reader in quicker, with more interest than the others.  And that, my friends, is what makes writing so hard.  You might read something and love it, and someone else will read the same exact thing and hate it.  How do you know which is the best?  You don’t.  All you can do is write the one that you love, stick with it, and hope, no pray, the agent will love it too.