Word by Word

"Don't implement promises, but keep them."
 - C.S. Lewis


Sometimes, questions are disguised as other questions.
Once I was asked to describe a box - size, decorations, colors, location, other adjectives - and when I had I was told that it could represent my life. How I saw my life and where I was and where I was going. I was also asked to describe a ladder in detail, and this was supposed to represent my friends and family, rungs I relied on in the upward climb of life.
Another time I was asked to describe my favorite animal and to describe why it was my favorite. This, I was told, was meant to say something about what I might be drawn to in a spouse.

I don't take these examples completely at face value, but I see the point. If you say you like giraffes because they are quiet and interesting - and tall - those may very well be traits you are drawn to in a spouse, or they might not be at all. The thing is, everything means something. There's a reason for everything we like: music, food, hobbies, movies, colors, and people. What we chose to fill our time with spells out what kind of person we are. So just as a question might not always be just a question, a story, or anything written, isn't just a story.

What is written reflects a part of the writer. If I write about someone with certain hopes and dreams, it's probably because I share or admire them. The same is true with fears and worries, struggles and downfalls. All the best writing has a grain of truth, I am told and believe. Even if the setting is otherworldly, the characters must be written with a human spark - both promising and fallible - which the writer knows or can sympathize with all too well.


Maybe there are people who write with a kind of clinical detachment, detailing horrors or dark desires without it being or becoming a part of them. Yet there's that old saying - "If you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes back" - which can serve as a warning to writers and readers alike. What we put in our heads can be difficult to impossible to remove. It may be fiction, but the idea came from somewhere. Just a seed of idea can stay in one's head and bloom with little tending.

So often, people are drawn to things of shock and awe, and themes which resonate with current culture. Each writer has their own reason for writing: it may be out of love of the craft, or to make money, or want of praise. I could go off about some of the popular books and series of today and how the quality points to them being written only for the latter two reasons, but not now. My point is this: as someone who loves writing, I understand that what I write is a reflection of who I am, and I hope that others realize the same. Words can build up others or simply oneself. Stories can be hopeful and edifying or can ride the tide of pop culture to gain accolade. Or they can be the products of imaginings not spoken aloud. I have to ask myself what I will chose to produce. Stories are powerful: they can inspire so much, so let it be worth while. Every inspiration comes from somewhere. Create and share that which is worthy.