The Power of the Written Word

[C-Dog]

Note that this article is still copyrighted to me. Don't steal it or reproduce any part of it, please. It is meant for this board and this board only.


One of the most difficult, but effective, techniques to employ in writing is to create feeling with your words. Any writer can describe a setting or a character, but have you ever considered the feeling produced by the words? Mostly this technique is restricted to poetry, because few people see any silmilarity between prose and poetry. As I said, it's difficult to do, but it gives your writing the depth of feeling.

What do I mean by the feeling of the words? It's fairly easy to explain. A child who is skipping down the hall has a completely different feel than the one who is tearing down the hall like a maniac. There is a huge difference between the images in your mind as you read those descriptions. On the same token, there is a huge difference in the feeling as well. The child in each scene may well be quite happy, but the first conveys a sense of relative peace while the other conveys wildness. Even similar words create different feelings. "Happy", "cheerful", and "joyful" are different degrees of happiness, and they convey different images. The only word that should be chosen is the one that suits the scene and the perspective.

Another thing to do is to carefully consider the sound of the words you use. If you listen to the way a word sounds, you should be able to hear hardness or softness in the tone. Hard sounds are the ones that are brash and abrupt (notice the way those two adjectives sound, for instance); they include the letters k, b, d, r, and hard g's, to name a few. Soft sounds are the ones that flow like water or breaths of air; they include s's, f's, j's, soft e's, a's, and i's. As such, "pleasant" has a different feel that "delightful". The first is a "soft" word and has a sense of calmness. The second has harder sounds and has an upbeat feel. Both, at the core, are substitutes for the word "happy". You should choose descriptive words to reflect the feeling the reader ought to receive if they were actually to see the thing you are describing for them. The words you use, as well as the sound of those words, conveys a subconcious sensation of the image projected.

An important thing to keep in mind while you are writing is the time of your story. Certain words we use today had different meanings, or were simply unheard of, in medieval times, or even the Victorian era. Take "awesome" for example; we use it today when we are talking about something we like, but it originally was used to describe an object that inspired awe. Words must always be suited to the setting as well as the style. Throwing in words that are out of place, in terms of setting or the overall vocabulary, only serve to detract from the work. Never simply choose a word because you feel like it or think it's a fun word; always consider its effect on the sentence or paragraph which contains it.

Those things might not seem so very difficult to you, but you can take it even a step further. Some poets choose particular meters, or beats per line, because they feel it best compliments the subject matter of their poem; in other words, the very rhythm of the words conveys a feeling. Have you ever tried to put a rhythm to your prose? Few people do, because it takes a lot of time and effort, but the effect is usually incredible; sometimes you barely notice a rhythm until you actually read it aloud. For instance, a battle scene would have no particular rhythm, because the battle itself is chaotic, and would have harsh sounds. An ocean scene, however, would be very rhythmical, with an up-and-down, repetitive feel until a speck of land breaks on the seemingly endless horizon, and would have the appropriately sounding words. You might not quite understand what I mean here if you aren't a poetry fan, but I would recommend you go look up the works of some of the old masters and listen to the words. Pay attention to the sound of the words, too. I would suggest you go read E.A. Poe's The Raven and Lord Byron's She Walks In Beauty. You'll see what I'm talking about.

This might seem like a waste of time to do, but really, it is worth it to get the final results. Once you get the hang of it, you'll probably see a whole new side to your writing. You should probably gloss over it initially and use this technique in the editing and rewriting stage of your story. Take the time to practice this technique, and remember that a work doesn't necessarily have to be original, just particularly well-written, to get into literature books.

Questions, suggestions, and/or comments? Post them below and I'll address them.

[Misti Wolanski]

Not a poetry fan.

But I'm taking "Writing Poetry" next term. >_<

Maybe it'll teach me to appreciate it a bit more.