Words

One sunny Sunday afternoon as my son played in the Kiddie Park my thoughts were interrupted by Hudson Bridge.

“Words carry great weight.” He said this as if he had a lot on his mind.

“Something bothering you?” I asked genuinely concerned.

“Words.” He repeated, “Carry great weight. In the beginning there was the Word, take my word, hanging on every word, don’t say another word, don’t put words in my mouth, choose your words carefully, word of law.”

“And don’t forget, the bird is the word.” I added grinning from ear to ear.

“Papa, ooma mow mow.” Hudson said without humor.

“What I am trying to explain is that words are how we communicate, relate to each other, explain ourselves, argue a point, describe what we see. You get the picture?” Hudson looked at me with searching eyes.

“I see.” I said not having anything better to say.

“Do you?” He replied as if he was speaking to a three year old. “As story tellers our words must convey not only plot, character personality, scenery, time, and place, we must convey feelings, smells, colors, thoughts, tastes, touch, hot and cold. Try to describe the taste of milk without using the word milk or cream, or, the color orange without using the word orange. If one of our characters is to die we must describe the death in such a way that it becomes real. We need the reader to feel the death in a visceral way. We want the reader to mourn or cheer the death and the only way to achieve this is with words. How do you scare a reader so bad they have nightmares when all you have are words to work with? It is through common experience and choice of words. When a politician gives a speech how do they get the crowd to cheer in the appropriate places?”

“Same way?” I answered.

“Not much conviction in your answer.” Hudson said patting me on the back.

“If we all share common experiences then it shouldn’t be that hard.” I stood to see if my son needed me for anything which he did not. He was running around like a deer in the wind chasing leaves.

“We may share common experiences but we experience them differently. As writers it is our job, our responsibility to make sure each reader experiences the same thing in our stories and all we have are words.” Hudson said as I sat back down next to him on the park bench.

“Words are heavy.” I said to him as we watched my son twirl himself on the swing.