It's the first Wednesday in May, so it's time for the IWSG monthly post.
This month's question is: What was an early experience where you learned that language had power?
This is a good question. I think I've always known that language had power. I learned to read to myself when I was three, but even before that I remember being swept away by stories my mother read me, being frightened with the characters or sad.
I think when I first learned I had power over language was when I was twelve. We had a substitute teacher for several weeks and she asked us to write a story one day. I wrote something based on a two-line summary of a movie I'd seen advertised somewhere and this teacher thought it was extraordinary. She was genuinely moved by the plight of my characters and the relationships I developed over the three or four pages I scrawled.
I think that's really when I decided I wanted to be a writer. I saw how my words had affected this teacher and it made me feel powerful. I could evoke emotion, even in a teacher!
And since then, I've written. And writing scenes that evoke strong emotions is something I try to do in every book because that's powerful writing. If you can make the reader really feel something, then your job as a writer is done.
I think I may have done it a little too well last weekend though... I made myself cry while I was writing and had to stop for a while. That's never happened to me before!
Have you ever made yourself cry with a scene you wrote?
Yes, I have written approximately two scenes that have made me cry. The first time it happened was very strange. The second time, I was all like, "Why am I so mean?!?"
ReplyDeleteWhen I was around 12 or so, I wrote an essay for a social studies test that my teacher read aloud to the class because she found it to be so moving. That's when I realized my writing had the power to make me want to melt into the floor. Then I became a writer anyway. :)
Gee, I never cried over anything I wrote. I'm definitely not a "moving" writer :P
ReplyDeleteI like it when something I write moves me. If it moves it has a chance of moving others. Love the story. Happy IWSG Day https://www.junetakey.com/iwsg-may-1st/
ReplyDeleteI hope that one day I can write a scene that makes me cry or laugh or angry just because that would mean I'm writing and writing well!
ReplyDeleteSometimes I'll cry, overwhelmed with a moment in the scene. As I like to inject a bit of humor in my thrillers, I'll often burst out laughing. Writing is so thrilling. Blessings
ReplyDeleteI've cried reading books.
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