Monthly Archives: October 2013

Words amaze me.

I was working on the WIP today, and I found this sentence buried deep within a chapter.

I have to show you something.

It’s a bit of a weak sentence, but not the worst I’ve ever written or read in a commercial book. Still, it didn’t seem right. I changed it to this.

I have something to show you.

Same words and almost the same meaning, but subtly different. In the first version, the object is slightly more abstract, because it is just “something.” In the second version, the something is in the possession of the speaker–“I have something.” To me, this version of the sentence had more immediacy.