Wednesday, April 22, 2009

My Love of Language for the Language of Love

I think the question that writers get asked most often is "What made you want to become a writer?"

For most, the answer usually has to do alot with having characters and stories in their head that beg to be let out.

I get that.

But for me, the true base reason I am a writer is that I have a love of language.

Words are truly magical to me. Somehow, they give you the capacity to take what you are feeling and thinking, and explain it in a way as to let someone else experience something.

Words let writers evoke emotions, create new worlds and new people, and take the reader on a journey - a journey that without words, would be impossible.

And it's not just the words themselves. The choice of words plays a part, too. Our society has given certain words so much power that they have become taboo - seen as vulgar or inappropriate.

That mystifies me. How can a word be "bad" or "good"? And who decides this? Words are neutral. The only meaning they have are what we choose to give them. Words are a means of expression, of communication. And I believe that all words deserve the opportunity to be used. To not do so is a waste of what seperates us from the animal kingdom.

And I think the most overused, yet most misunderstood word is love. As a writer of romance, the language of love plays a very important part in my writing. We have limitless words to describe what love is, but do any of them truly evoke that emotion? It is a challenge all romance writers face, yet one we take on willingly each time we pick up a pencil, or turn on a computer.

And so my love of words keeps me treading on this path of a writer, prodding me onward to find new and exciting ways to use words to my advantage.

Because without words - all words - what would a writer be?

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