There is nothing that thrills me more than a perfectly written sentence or paragraph. The kind that just stops you in your tracks. Words that you have to re-read two or three times and savour before you can carry on!
I tend to burn through books at breakneck speed so anything that makes me slow down and STOP, even for a second is to be treasured. In fact, sometimes I feel a little like Indiana Jones, uncovering these gems from where they are hidden in a sea of words.
So what exactly is it that makes a bit of prose just that little bit snappier than its peers? What makes it stand out from the crowd? Well I think it can be many things.
It can be a bit of cleverness – the kind where you pat yourself on the back for ‘getting it’ when maybe others wouldn’t. It can be a piece of terse dialogue where you can picture the exact expression on the character’s face as they deliver it. It can be the imperceptible shake of a head that speaks volumes.
Mostly though it is those bits where you think if someone made this book into a movie, there is no way they could adequately convey what this sentence just did. You’ve heard people say that a picture speaks a thousand words? Well I am sorry, but sometimes words just do it better.
Recently I’ve taken to marking these words with a post-it note just so I can come back and be inspired by them when battling writer’s block. Or even just to re-savour them! Here are a few of my favourites: