Words of Choice

I'm working on a 2nd draft for one of my manuscripts, with the goal (hidden even from myself) of querying it by the end of the calendar year. One of the things that I have noticed is that I'm making notes about which words I chose. Sure I'm also picking at grammar and those horrible blank spaces where smooth plot is supposed to be, but I see a lot of places where the word choice was... bad? how about... awkward? or perhaps... just not what I really wanted at the time but I was trying to get the main plot down on paper? Yes, that's it, the last one is what I mean.

I chose words to make the story go and now I'm searching for words to give the story life. It's a hard thing, harder than I would have expected. Who knew that word choice could be so important? And yet it is terribly important. Words carry impact. Two words can denote the same things, but their connotations! Ahh, such a difference can be found therein.

The more I write, and the more I live, the more I realize that words can make or break a situation. As a writer, I want to have words that reflect how the characters feel, or the feel of the environment, so that the reader can see what I saw, taste what I tasted, and smell what I smelled. It's tough, but you know, I feel a certain visceral satisfaction when I do find that word that fits snugly but without cutting off the circulation, rather like that latex examining glove on a protologist's hand.