As a writer, I can tell you that finding just the right word for a sentence is a beautiful thing. Writing can be frustrating, like when you spend the whole evening putting a string of Christmas lights on the front of your house over the garage and you plug it in…

… and nothing happens. No budda, no bing, no bang. Huh.

The right words often tease me, flitting there in the very corner of my eye, dancing provocatively in the recesses of my brain, just close enough to the surface of my consciousness that I know the word exists but just fuzzy enough to make it impossible for me to capture. I’m just as likely to finally land on solid proof for Bigfoot as land upon that mystical word.

So I jerk the whole light string down again, muttering under my breath about how Scrooge was on to something. I inspect every bulb to see if it’s connecting properly and having its little needs met. One diva light bulb at a time. Frustrating business.

But when I discover that solitary pink bulb that’s been whining and holding the whole chain hostage and replace it with a new word -er, bulb – with the right attitude, and I plug in the string again and the whole thing lights up and brings joy to the world … THAT, ladies and gentleman, THAT is what it’s like finding just the right word in the right place at the right time. It’s like the holy grail, baby. Break out the hot apple cider, we have a winner instead of a whiner. An entire paragraph can make the leap from obscurity to genius with the turning of one magnificent word. Divas are fine, so long as they behave.

Yup. Now, if only I could describe it for you.