What's in a Word?

Have something to say, and say it as clearly as you can. That is the only secret.

~ Matthew Arnold

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What’s in a word?

Well to begin with, letters, as simple as that, letters are what makes up words. But as writers you need to be careful and choosy with which word you use because just like driving a screw into dry rotted wood, the sentence just might fall apart!
And is that what you want, your sentence to fall apart?

I didn’t think so. First you need to begin with a good strong piece of wood. Okay, too metaphorical here. The strong wood is symbolizing your strong plot! You’ve got a story all ready to build so you have got your solid piece of wood and a few loose screws. Oops again, didn’t mean that. You have screws on hand and are ready to begin writing your story!

Oh my, where do you start? Do you have a character in mind?  What I mean is, has this character been knocking on your noggin begging to be let out of the closet you have her/him stored in? Well, if you’ve got the plot idea, now is the time to let Suzie McQuirkle out of the closet and let her have a run of a few lines. What? You don’t have a plot OR a character?  Uh oh!

Ok...you need to start writing a few sentences. We do that with words. It was a dark and stormy night. Oh that is too cliché. Try something a little stronger. The car was zooming down the wet roadway... Ah little better. You can do so much with the words in a cliché. This might be the foundational piece of wood your seeking to begin building your plot and character. 

Once you have those two elements, start asking the questions: WHY? Why was Suzie zooming down a wet roadway? Was she running from something or worse, someone? WHAT caused her to flee? WHO is she fleeing from? The law, a stalker? Oh my we’re building now! Let’s not forget the WHEN and HOW of the questions, okay?

When you start questioning your character, you have begun to pick up a few more scraps of wood to add to the little story you’re building. I hate to do this to you, after I’m always saying to just keep writing and writing and don’t stop. But stop for a minute. Yes, one minute is all I’m allowing you! Look at the words you used!!! Are they strong words? Too fluffy? Too exuberant? Ok, minutes up. You’ve looked at the words and are thinking, maybe zooming isn’t a tight word, you need something MORE graphic.

Okay, time for the thesaurus. I always have mine opened as I’m writing so I don’t use the same word twice in a paragraph or two. If it is meaning the same thing, you need to find another word! Make it strong, bring home the point you’re trying to get across.
 
The car was zooming down the slippery wet road, making a speedy getaway as Suzie dashes in and out of traffic, she zipped right through the scene to safety. Safety? I don’t think so. She more than likely crashed, or you wouldn’t have told the reader the road was wet and slippery.

See all those synonyms I used. Pretty easy huh? Well it’s not and it takes a lot of skill and tried and true blood, but you’ll get the hang of it in no time. Remember, in writing, words are your friends!  Make every one count for something as you build your little birdhouse, I mean story. A few loose screws later, you might just have something! Stick with it.

Writing~ A home within my home ~

Pss.19:4 Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun,
***

A writer sits nestled behind the short wooden desk, a lamp that looks like a small crane reaches out its light to cast dreamy whiteness onto the keyboard. Fingers can be seen tapping on the keyboard as many words fill the page.

The image of the writer spending many days and nights in this very position of straight back, legs curled up under, possibly a warm fuzzy blanket wrapped around to take off any chill that might drift by, and silence. Silence fills the air except for the keys delivering a cabaret in the stillness of the morning.

The writers mind envelops many worlds, wired to fantasy outside of home. Clinging to thoughts that have passed over time and now adhering like a wet blanket to the mind waiting to be spilled onto the white page.

The roads are dark and treacherous, the clouds ominous, the sounds piercing, the people all held within a conflict of the world that spins around them. Material and immaterial presence is lurking around every page, stones skip in a river, boulders tumble down the side of a mountain, barely missing the few that have wandered this road.

This is the eclipse of the writer as she destroys families, rebuilds friendships, molds characters, misplaces words, only to find them resurfacing on another page, another chapter in time of the story, waiting to be used for the most poignant part of the clincher, the revealing of the truth that created this story to begin with.

Sentences all line up like soldiers, dark and mysterious, forming gripping paragraph after gripping paragraph. The reader is in the mesmerizing throes of the pages that have formed the story and the writer, the quiet, beautiful writer has cast a spell holding the one who reads the story in the palm of her hand.

Here before you lies a tale of the writer’s life. Sure if they’re making millions, they’re probably out having fun in between stories, but for us wannabe’s, we’re here living out this fantasy of putting meaningful words, compelling words, to a page. We can’t just tell you a simple story, with so-so words. We have to pack a powerful punch in each and every single word so that the meaning can carry on throughout an entire chapter, massive amounts of pages, to a finale of complete orgasmic quality!

My mentors always tell me to make every word count and as I scan my sentences I’m always making sure there isn’t a boring word, that will stop you in your tracks and cause you to toss my book/story into the heap of no-good reads of yesteryear.

Did I say orgasmic quality? What can I say. Writing is a euphoric high here in the pine scented confines of my humble abode. Without any inhibitions, writing is, my home within my home.

kernels

Matt. 12: 37 For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.

***

Well, I’m taking this course at WVU and as much as I love to learn, I can’t seem to take my mentor hat off. I mentor, which means aid and assist other writers, in the course. I’m not mentoring this class and I have to be able to take my hard hat off because some people don’t want to hear that a sentence was not good, or it didn’t work, or that they exceeded the word count.

There’s that issue again, word count. Well when the course calls for 500 words and I see people posting 600 words, 700 words and even 800-1500 words, it irks me to no end. I say, CUT IT people! This is a lesson, not a marathon to see if you can get your point across. If you can’t make your point in 500 words, then guess what, you didn’t make your point at all.

The second lesson was about a rose. (Don’t ask.) I wrote the lesson and it went to 589 words. SNIP, CUT, CHOP. I got it down to 507! Much closer to the word count called for and a lot tighter too. Not the awesome imagery I’m used to, not the free feeling of just let it go and let it flow, but guess what, I wrote it, got my point across, and I’ll post it today to see what others think. Wish me luck. :-)

My lesson one grew from a mass of kernel sentences. He was lean. He had stubble. It was gray. And so on and so forth. We were to make one sentence, and quite a long sentence, to make the kernels sentences one. I did it, I hope. All the writer’s had different takes on the sentence and I didn’t see many foul ups, so my mentor hat said good job. It’s amazing to see how one kernel can grow into a whole bowl of popcorn!

On another note, some people commented and asked me to use the words HIS and WAS instead of the stronger word choice I used. Thank you for the great critique but guess what? WAS is passive and an excess word in writing. I try to cut those words out and use them to a minimum, if at all possible. If it became the stronger word choice, by all means I would use the suggestion.

From one kernel grew a 507 word piece for the next lesson. I don’t even care if I got it right. I wrote, didn’t draw a blank, and got it all in, in 500 words. kibble kibble. I mean, good girl Joni, now write some more.

On that note I’m off to inspire myself. Hey, I can only inspire all of you once a day, I need some time to inspire myself. :-)

Write people! No matter what, writing is in you and you need to fulfill your destiny.

godspeed...