An unusual sentence caught my attention this weekend and urged me to write this post.Here's the sentence: I'll be with you as soon as I put the muffins in the microwave so the cat won't eat them.
Have you ever had to say or write that before? I know I hadn't because I actually paused after saying it, cocked my head to the side, and wondered if anyone has ever said it before.
So...according to several Internet sites, some of which looked less than reputable, there are over one million words? That seems a bit low. I do like the answer that there really isn't an answer to that question - but this entire little rant is not the purpose of this post.
With all the words, there are only so many ways in which we can arrange them together in ways that haven't already been done yet.
AND
makes those arrangements of letters and words interesting, intriguing and original.
Because that is what we, as writers, are trying to do - right? We are trying to arrange words in an order that hasn't been done about a subject that very likely has already been covered.
If that wasn't the case, there would only be one book about vampires. One about zombies. One about Dragons. One about love. One about war...you get the idea.
It is easy to arrange words in an order that is original.
The bright pink elephant didn't want to sit next to the silly little butterfly.
What is not easy is making those arranged words make sense and want to be read. What is not easy is making them tell a story that someone would want to read.
And there's the bottom line. The words need meaning. They need power. Who cares about the pink elephant or for that matter my muffin starved cat?
As a writer, the first answer must be me.
The second answer must be the story.
And hopefully the third and equally important answer will be the reader.
As I writer, I must use the power of words to make the reader care about the words I have chosen, but hopefully have written in such a way that the words use each other and don't compete for attention.
We've seen those great lines. The killer first sentences. The heard breaking last lines. And we have all heard how important that opening thought of a story is.
So now I leave you with words. And go to create some power of my own.
