Day 13: "Words leave smoke trails into the past"

Photo by Eileen Pan on Unsplash

A long time ago (think the late 1980s), there was a mystery writer, Rita Mae Brown who wrote a writing craft book Starting from Scratch.

Some of it is still very 1980s mindset and might make you shudder and some of it is pretty brilliant.

One of her chapters is all about how words are “separate units of consciousness.”

Brown writes, “Language is the road map of culture. It tells you where its people come from and where they are going. A study of the English language reveals a dramatic history and an astonishing versatility. It is the language of survivors, of conquerors, of laughter.”

Deep stuff, right?

Brown believes that writers don’t need to just have life philosophies, but also language philosophies.

“A word leaves a smoke trail behind it that curls into the past,” she says.

We think of words as fixed. Instead, she says, they are pendulums: moving, swinging, shimmering, somethings static, but not usually.

Words are our first tool as writers, right? Each word we use creates associations.

Some of them are associations most people in a culture have.

• McDonald’s=golden arches=french fries.

Some of them are associations that are deeply personal.

• McDonald’s=golden arches=french fries=throwing up orange juice in Paige’s dad’s car=him yelling=spittle=bad, bad, bad.

Each word you pick matters. Each word you write down means something. A tweak, she says, changes that meaning.

• My love is not my adoring

• Snow covered the abatjour has a different feel than snow covered the skylight.

• I am so bumfuzzled feels wild. I am so confused? Not so much.

Words, Brown says are “separate units of consciousness” because they hook into our minds, our memories, create associations.

Here’s George Winston’s December. Maybe spend a minute writing down “December” and then the words that come to you. After a minute, you’ll probably have words that are all over the place, some really different than when you first think “December.” It’s so cool how the brain works, right?

RANDOM HOUSEKEEPING MOMENT

Hey! Hi! This is just me, Carrie, in your email. I wanted to give you a quick reminder that all these emails (and more) live over here on the Live Happy (and Write Better Now) site. And these daily writing posts are just for the month of February. I’ll go back to the regular routine for March. All these posts are here under the WE ARE WRITING tab on the site.

Below the paywall is a really cool exercise about this and bonus video and a place to submit. Happy writing and revising!