The spoken word is more powerful than we might ever hope for at times, and it is a tool for change and healing in the most powerful of ways. To consider it dead as it hits the listener, is definitely something I cannot align with, just like Miss Dickinson. Our words can destroy, lift up, empower, motivate...the list goes on. Words are the life between us and around us.
But...how might this relate to our written words? Is it so for those FIRST words of a first draft? Do we write them as if they are dead and will be slashed in the end? Or do we write them as if they are the very cells of an organism of grand potential?
Sometimes we forget that our words are the first sign of life in our characters, in our stories, in our purpose. I see authors struggle with writing that perfect first line, or that satisfying last line. But what if we looked at each word as a living thing, a breathing thing that is the root for the next one and the next one and we just keep writing until we have poured life onto the pages? What if we don't look at our words as something as dead and boring as count (sorry...I am all right-brained...numbers=boring to me), but as new life for that next growth?
Just a thought.
But. Hmmmm. I went back and read and reread my 92,000 words in my last story before sending it off. And, while I deleted bunches, as if they were just boring numbers needing to be wiped off the blackboard, the ones that stuck--ESPECIALLY the ones that I figured would die with the first draft--those that still made it on the page--can I just say...WHOA...? Those words took on life and purpose in my story like I never imagined them to do.
Consider your words bringing life about. See how much of your life you can breathe into their first day of existence. Write that first draft without too much weight on it all sticking, but write that first draft as if you are CRAFTING. There's power in that, there's art in that.
Happy Birthday, all you words!
No comments:
Post a Comment